A Floral Return
by BellaDeS
Summary: Lily Potter and Rose Weasley were kidnapped as infants and presumed dead. Over a decade later, twins Lydie and Reine De Sauveterre visit Hogwarts as a part of the Beauxbatons delegation for this year's Triwizard Tournament. Canon pairings (though not a main feature) H/G, R/H etc. AU, doesn't comply with JK Rowling's epilogue.
1. Chapter 1

It was a Thursday morning, Lydie and Reine had eaten breakfast earlier than most and were now packing their trunks, ignoring the dirty looks they were getting from the rest of the girls in the fourth year dormitory. It was a school-known fact that the non-identical twins were the smartest in their year, so no one found it to be a surprise when they were selected by the Headmistress to join the Beauxbatons delegation at the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, even if though they weren't old enough to compete. However, it was a highly-prized opportunity that many wanted dearly, and since it had been announced that Lydie and Reine had won it, they had been receiving the cold shoulder from most of the lower school.

The dormitory housed all forty-eight fourth year girls. It was a long room with two rows of beds against the walls. Students slept in alphabetical order with their trunks at the foot of their beds and they each had a night stand and a small wardrobe to hang their clothing in. There were two sets of double doors at either end of the room, one set which led to the bathroom, another which led to the sitting room and the rest of the school.

Lydie and Reine were of the same height and had the same hair colour (red) and face shape, however their eyes were different colours (Lydie had brown eyes, while Reine had blue) and Lydie's hair was straight but Reine's was quite bushy.

Once they were sure they were done, they adjusted their uniform and then left the dormitory with their trunks in hand and made their way to the Entrance Hall where Madam Maxime, the Headmistress, Madam Delacour, one of the Housemistresses, and some of the older members of the delegation were waiting and chatting amongst themselves.

Once the remaining four girls arrived, the delegation was lead to an extremely large carriage pulled by a dozen winged horses. Everyone climbed on board and put their trunks down before having a good look around. The ceiling was very high, obviously to accommodate Madame Maxime's height, and around the room there were sofas and armchairs as well as a fireplace and bookshelves on one of the walls.

'_We will arrive at Hogwarts at six o'clock, this evening_.' Madam Maxime announced in French, before disappearing behind a door with Mademoiselle Delacour, that no one had noticed before then. The students then dispersed into the room and busied themselves with other things.

On arriving at Hogwarts that evening, the girls from Beauxbatons were ushered into the Great Hall along with the delegation from Durmstrang, they were receiving a lot of attention from the Hogwarts students. Professor Longbottom, the Deputy-Headmaster led them to stand in two groups, the Beauxbatons students stood to the right of the stage and Durmstrang to the left. The Hogwarts students sat down at four tables, everyone with a blue hood on their black robes went to the table nearest the Beauxbatons, all those with red hoods on the next table along, all those with green hoods to the table nearest the Durmstang students and all those with yellow hoods to the table left over.

Madam Maxime greeted the Hogwarts Headmistress, Professor Abercrombie and the Durmstrang Headmaster, Professor Antonov, while Mademoiselle Delacour was speaking to two people, one woman who looked not dissimilar to herself, Lydie assumed that they were sisters as she remembered the Housemistress mentioning having a sister who now lived in England, and another man who was quite tall with messy black hair and round glasses. It seemed that these two people were not normally around as many of the Hogwarts students were pointing at them. Another man who was tall and thin with a sallow skin tone stood nearby, but he didn't take much part in their conversation.

After a few minutes all the adults sat down at the staff table, except for Professor Longbottom, who stood beside a stool with an old hat sitting upon it, and Professor Abercrombie who began to speak.

'Good Evening!' The room fell silent, 'I hope you have all had a pleasant day of lessons and that you have worked up an appetite! However, before we begin our wonderful feast, I must introduce our guests. First from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, Headmistress Madam Maxime, Housemistress Mademoiselle Delacour and their students!' A short round of applause followed. 'From the Durmstrang Institute, Headmaster Antonov and his students,' more applause, 'and three of the champions of the previous Triwizard Tournament, Viktor Krum, Fleur Weasley and Harry Potter,' even more applause, this time much louder.

'This year, students from visiting schools will be placed in one of our houses, Gryffindor for the brave and daring, Ravenclaw for the witty and intelligent, Hufflepuff for the loyal and patient and Slytherin for the ambitious and the resourceful,' Professor sprout announced before looking from the Beauxbatons girls to the Durmstrang boys, 'you will take lessons with your house, eat with your house and sleep in your house dormitories, it will be your home for your year here, much like it is for our regular students. Professor Longbottom.' He gestured to the man who was standing by the stool and the hat, now holding an unrolled scroll, and he began to read.

'From Beauxbatons, Abel, Isabelle! Come up here, please!' Isabelle, a tall sixth year with long brown hair tied in a ribbon, detached herself from the group and walked up to the stage. She sat on the stool and put on the hat, which thought for a moment, before sorting her into Ravenclaw.

'De Sauveterre, Lydie!' Lydie walked up to the stage and sat down on the stool.

'GRYFFINDOR!' The hat yelled. Lily took it off and joined the table with students with red hoods. She looked back up at the staff table and saw the man with scruffy black hair and glasses looking at her, somewhat sadly.

'De Sauveterre, Reine!' Lydie looked at her twin who was now sitting on the stool, wearing the hat. Reine was sorted into Gryffindor, too, and she joined Lydie at the table. When Lydie looked back at the man, he was talking to Fleur.

The sorting soon ended; the only people having paid attention were the visiting students and the teachers. There were three Beauxbatons students in Gryffindor (Lydie, Reine and a girl called Annabelle St Martin); two in Hufflepuff (Clarisse Yount and Elodie Voclain) and the rest were in Ravenclaw. For Durmstang, six were in Slytherin, four in Gryffindor and two in Ravenclaw. After another announcement about timetables being handed out in the morning, the feast began. Mounds of food appeared on the tables and everyone began to eat.

Lydie opted for a small bowl of pumpkin soup, as well as some chicken salad, Reine had chicken soup with some vegetables, although this was a fraction of what was on offer. There were platters filled with sausages and potatoes, huge roasted birds sat on silver plates up and down the tables with about two metres between each one. Lydie thought it was a bit much, she wondered how most of the students stayed in shape with all this food on offer every evening, she quietly voiced this thought to her sister, who was sitting next to her, although it needn't have been done quietly, what with all of the chatting and probable lack of French speakers that would take offence.

The three Beauxbatons girls that had been sorted into Gryffindor chatted. Lydie and Reine knew Annabelle St Martin vaguely from their previous encounters in the library (even by Beauxbatons standards they were in there a lot) and all three of them were surprised to have been put in Gryffindor, but they didn't question it.

Lydie looked up at the staff table again to see the man with the glasses looking at her again, with the same sad look upon his face. She turned to the Hogwarts boy who was sitting next to her as asked:

'Who is that man?'

The boy looked around at her. By the expression on his face, Lydie knew that he had missed part of the question.

'Who is that man? The one sitting next to Fleur Weasley with the glasses. Is he Viktor Krum or Harry Potter?' Lydie enquired again.

'Him? That's Harry Potter, won the last tournament.' He explained.

'Oh, cool, I have heard of him,' Lydie nodded. 'By the way, I'm Lydie and this is my twin sister Reine.' Lydie told him, elbowing Reine to get her attention. Reine waved then returned to her soup. Albus looked sad for a moment but regained his smile within a second. 'And you?'

'I'm Albus Potter.' Albus expected her jaw to drop or her expression to change to one of excitement, but it didn't.

'So that's your Dad up there?' Lydie simply asked and Albus nodded. He was pleased that someone hadn't minded that Harry Potter was his father. It was a nice change from the constant hassle he got when he introduced himself to new people. 'Do you have any siblings?'

'Yeah, that's my brother James, over there.' He pointed at a boy a few people down with the same black, messy hair as Albus and Harry. Albus turned back to Lydie, he seemed to want to say more but didn't. 'Most of my cousins are here, actually.' He said with a laugh.

'Really? That's cool. Which ones are they?'

'Well, that one is Hugo.' Albus said, pointing at a small-ish boy. 'Those two are Roxanne and Lucy,' he gestured towards two girls who were chatting to each other, 'Fred,' a boy who was sitting opposite James, 'Molly,' she was talking to a blond haired boy, 'and Louis.' He pointed at the blonde haired boy who Molly was talking to; he shared some resemblance to both Fleur and Madam Delacour. 'Louis has two older sisters as well, Victoire and Dominique, but they've both left school.' Lydie noticed that most of the cousins, save Louis, shared the same red hair, which was not dissimilar to her own and Reine's.

'Those are very French names.' Lydie replied, smiling.

'Yeah, Aunt Fleur insisted that they all had French names.' He pointed to Fleur Weasley at the staff table, who was deep in conversation with Mademoiselle Delcaour.

'I see. So she is your aunt?' Albus nodded. 'So are you related to Viktor Krum as well, then?' Lydie asked jokingly.

'No. But my Uncle Ron said that he and my Aunt Hermione were a couple for a few months during her fourth year.' Albus explained, utterly serious. Lydie laughed.

'Seriously?'

'Yep.'

'Wow, your family is really... something.' Lydie replied, smiling. They laughed together for a while.

'What's your family like?' Albus asked. Lydie pursed her lips.

'It's alright. I rarely see anything of my mother, she is never around when Reine and I are home during the summer and our father left years ago. I don't remember him, really.'

'Oh, I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. Reine and I rarely go home, anyway. We prefer it at school. The only time we go home is for a couple of weeks at the beginning of August, which is when the school is closed.'

'You only have a two week summer holiday?' Albus was shocked.

'No, no. Our summer holiday lasts for two and a half months but the school only fully closes for two weeks.'

'I see... So are you putting your name in for the tournament?' Albus asked. Lydie shook her head.

'No, I'm not old enough. There were two places for younger students to attend the Tournament to get a chance at studying in another country, Reine and I were the ones selected to go.'

'Cool.' Albus smiled.

At that point, dessert appeared on the table and everyone tucked in.

Later that evening, Lydie and Reine were sitting in the corner of the Gryffindor common room chatting quietly in French, Lydie twirled her blue, felt hat between her fingers while rose fiddled with the ribbons on her satin shawl. Annabelle had stayed downstairs, as had all of the students aged over seventeen from all three schools (Lydie assumed it had something to do with the tournament), so she hadn't come to the common room yet. All around there were people doing homework, talking and playing games. Lydie and Reine were just about to go and search for their room when Albus came over.

'Hi,' He said, 'my cousins and I are going to have a Gobstones tournament, do you want to join us?' Lydie and Reine exchanged glances then nodded and followed Albus over to a group of people sitting on the floor around a Gobstones board. 'Guys, this is Lydie and Reine De Sauveterre.' He introduced the girls to his cousins. After a round of smiling, waving and saying hello, Albus sat down and Lydie and Reine followed suit.

After a very amusing game of Gobstones (whereby Louis, James and Fred got covered in foul smelling, purple liquid) it was nine o'clock. Lydie and Reine had learned a lot about the family (apparently their Christmases were rather legendary) and were pleased to have made some friends. They had just stood up to leave when Annabelle swept through the portrait hole and dragged them towards a staircase and began climbing. The twins followed her as they climbed up more stairs than they could count; passing doors that labelled the dormitories behind them as those belonging to the first to seventh year Gryffindor girls. Eventually they reached the top of the stairs and found themselves in front of a door that read:

'Gryffindor sorted Beauxbatons Pupils:

Lydie De Sauveterre  
Reine De Sauveterre  
Annabelle St Martin'

They went through it and found themselves in a circular room with three mahogany beds with red hangings. There were three wardrobes and their pale blue Beauxbatons trunks were sitting at the end of the beds, in stark contrast to the rest of the room which was dark red and brown.

'What was that about? We were just about to leave anyway!' Reine asked.

'Sorry; Madame Maxime's orders. She wants us all in our rooms by half-past nine. She mentioned something about being up early tomorrow morning for breakfast, to make a good impression.' Annabelle replied.

'Oh, okay,' agreed Lydie, as she pulled her nightclothes from her trunk. 'What was the meeting for?'

'We were putting our names in for the Tournament. All of the Durmstrang boys entered as well as all of us and about ten Hogwarts students.'

'Cool! When to they announce the champions?' Reine enquired.

'Tomorrow at dinner,' Annabelle told them. She then yawned and picked up her satchel from on top of her trunk, removing a book on Charms then sitting down on her bed to read. Reine took her wash-bag from her trunk and disappeared into the adjacent bathroom; Lydie went, too, as soon as she had finished changing.


	2. Chapter 2

Lydie wasn't sure whether getting up early made a good impression or not. The Beauxbatons students were the first down to breakfast the following morning, they were so early that they had to wait in the entrance hall for fifteen minutes before the Great hall was opened. They received strange looks from the other students, Hogwarts and Durmstrang alike, and it only added to the stereotype of French girls that a lot of people had.

Professor Longbottom handed around the timetables, as promised, and Lydie and Reine looked them. The first lesson that morning was double Charms, followed by double Defence Against the Dark Arts after break, then Arithmancy followed by Ancient Runes and History of Magic to end the day.

Charms went by uneventfully. The class covered summoning charms (which Lydie and Reine had already mastered) in both theory and practice. However, the class seemed somewhat distracted, many of the students chatted excitedly among themselves about something that would be happening in their Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, after break. The only person that didn't seem excited was Albus, in fact he seemed very unexcited, unlike his classmates. When Reine asked him if he was okay, he shrugged her off.

When they entered the classroom the reason behind the excitement became apparent. Standing at the front of the class with the regular DADA professor, Professor Kremmer, was Harry Potter. As the students –Gryffindor and Ravenclaw- began to take their seats; Lydie and Reine chose a desk at the back of the room and sat down. Albus came in last and dawdled over to the remaining desk in front of the twins.

Professor Kremmer did a brief introduction, calling Lydie and Reine to the front, and then he called the register. Afterwards he announced that Harry ('Mr Potter' was his exact words) would be giving them a lecture on Death Eaters, this generated even more excitement in the class in all except Albus, who was indifferent and the twins, who were just curious. Professor then announced that he would be in his office and Harry took over the lesson.

'Death Eaters. You all know what they are.' He began. Some girls chuckled at the back and he turned to them. 'If you are not going to take this seriously then you have my permission to leave,' He turned back to the class, 'that applies to all of you.' No one moved.

With a flick of his wand the title of the lesson appeared on the board in spiky (but nevertheless neat) handwriting.

'During the First Wizarding War, who can tell me how many Death Eaters were under Voldemort's command?' He asked. A couple of Ravenclaw students put their hands up, however Harry looked to the Gryffindor students, hoping that one of his old house may be able to answer the question, but in vain. He picked a gangly, blonde haired boy who was waving at him. 'Yes?'

'The exact number is unknown but it was close to four-hundred in Britain alone, with others situated around Europe, particularly in Bulgaria.'

'Correct; five points to Ravenclaw.'

The lesson continued in that way, occasionally Harry invited discussion about one subject or another but it rarely lasted very long. The first half of the lesson was about the First Wizarding War but almost exactly after the bell went signifying the half-way point, the topics evolved to those to do with the Second Wizarding War and even touching on revenge attacks after the war. Lydie's admiration for Harry began to grow at this point, she could tell by the way he was speaking that he would rather not talk about it, that he would rather not relive it all, but he did anyway, for the benefit of a younger generation. Lydie knew that she wouldn't be able to do what he was doing, if the roles had been reversed, so she paid attention, making sure she absorbed every little detail she heard.

When the bell rang for lunch the class quietly packed away their belongings and left the classroom, in stark contrast to how they had been before the lesson. Lydie and Reine left the classroom and headed to the dining hall, following their classmates; however, Albus stayed behind. Lydie thought that it must be to talk to his father, to catch up; since she doubted that the two had been able to talk, if Harry arrived on the previous evening. But Lydie disputed this theory, after seeing his unhappy and somewhat angry expression.

The rest of the day flew by. The twins found their three remaining lessons interesting and they hadn't received too much homework, only a short translation for Ancient Runes and some research for Arithmancy. Having returned their school bags to the dormitory, Lydie and Reine joined the flow of people entering the Dining Hall, many were talking rapidly about the looming champions' selection, however, Lydie noticed two of Albus' cousins (Molly and Louis) seemed worried and were slightly fidgety as they crossed the threshold.

After eating another fabulous meal, the hall was silenced, and Professor Abercrombie walked over to stand in front of a wooden goblet, within which, burned a blue flame. The other professors and guests stood in a line at the side of the stage.

'And now, the selection of Champions!' At the sound of those words, the flame turned red and out flew a folded piece of parchment before the flame returned to its previous colour. Professor Abercrombie opened it and read the name to herself before announcing it to the hall. 'The champion from Durmstrang, is Aleksandar Tomov!' A burley looking eighteen-year old emerged from the Slytherin table and joined Professor Abercrombie on stage, before being ushered into a chamber off the side of the Great Hall by Professor McGonagall. The hall applauded before the flame burned red once again.

'The champion from Beauxbatons is Annabelle St Martin!' The hall applauded once more and Annabelle left her sat next to Reine on the Gryffindor table and walked into the chamber. Lydie looked over at Madam Maxime, she seemed pleased with the Goblet's selection.

For the last time, the flame changed colour and spat out a piece of parchment.

'And, finally, the Hogwarts champion; Louis Weasley!'

Everyone cheered once more, especially the Gryffindor table, as Louis stood up and walked straight to the chamber. Lydie couldn't help but notice that he made every effort not to make eye contact with his mother or Harry. Albus and his most of cousins exchanged raised eyebrows, but Molly looked extremely guilty.

Professor Abercrombie then dismissed everyone and followed the champions into the chamber along with Madam Maxime, Professor Antonov, Viktor, Harry and Fleur (who looked extremely flustered). Lydie stood up with Reine and followed the crowd out of the hall.

'Louis is going to be in so much trouble!' A familiar voice exclaimed. Lydie turned around to see Albus walking behind her with his brother. James laughed.

'So much trouble! Did you see Aunt Fleur's face?' James replied. Albus nodded.

'Why would Louis be in trouble?' Lydie asked, although she knew that she was intruding. However, neither one of the boys seemed to mind.

'Dad and Aunt Fleur sent us all letters about how we weren't supposed to get involved with the tournament, as soon as it was announced. I don't know why, though, Dad won it when he took part, when I asked him in a letter he just ignored the question.' Albus explained. 'Did you see Molly's reaction?' He turned back to his brother, 'You don't think she entered, too, do you?'

'It's possible, it's either that or she was the one who told him to do it. You know what they are like; the only opinions that matter to them are each other's.'

Later in the common room, Lydie and Reine were sitting with the Weasleys and Potters; all were there except for Louis. Lydie and Reine were teaching the others some French, it was only basic phrases, so Hugo, James and Albus, who had attended Muggle school before Hogwarts, already knew some of it.

According to Fred, their motivation was 'to annoy Louis as much as possible', apparently all three of Fleur's children were fluent in French and, Louis especially, took pride in that fact; he hated it when his cousins started speaking to him in French, Fred said that Louis said that it ruined the 'exclusivity' of it.

Reine was just explaining something to do with verbs when Louis climbed through the portrait hole and rushed to sit down with his cousins and the twins, obviously trying not to be noticed by others in the room, the family stopped speaking.

'What did Aunt Fleur say?' Molly asked; she was genuinely concerned, however the other cousins were sniggering at his predicament, Lydie and Reine looked at him, slightly amused but not openly laughing like the others.

'Nothing, yet,' He explained, 'I think she'll corner me at breakfast tomorrow.'

How wrong Louis was. At that moment, the door was flung open ('DO YOU MIND?!' Screeched the Fat Lady) and in stomped a fuming Fleur Weasley. She walked over to the group and began to yell in French.

_'How dare you enter the tournament! I told you and all of your cousins not to! Even Harry agreed with me and I know for a fact that he sent all of you letters as well! I thought that even if you didn't listen to me you would listen to him, but obviously not! Do you know what happened in the last tournament?! Somebody died!'_

Louis paled but didn't stand down: '_But that was only because of the Death Eaters, and Voldemort!'_

'_I do not care if it was, and do not interrupt me! All of the surviving champions last time came very close to dying; it is a miracle more than half of us are here now! It wasn't just us either! One of the tasks involved Gabrielle, Ron and Hermione being taken hostage and tied at the bottom of the black lake! If it wasn't for Harry, Gabrielle could have died! Do you now understand what you have done? Do you now understand why I am so angry? Harry is not pleased either, so don't to looking for sympathy from him! We have had enough loss in this family with Fred, Lily and Rose, we don't want another! Well, what do you have to say for yourself?'_

'_I'm sorry, Mum,'_ Louis said quietly. Fleur then disappeared from the room and people went back to their business. Louis stood up and climbed up the boys' staircase. The Weasleys and the Potters looked at Lydie and Reine with expressions that clearly said: 'translation, please!' It was lucky that Lydie and Reine both had near-perfect memories, so, between themselves they were able to recount Fleur's speech.

As soon as the twins finished talking, Albus stood up and announced that he was going to bed, Hugo followed suit and then James, too. They all wore uncomfortable expressions. Lydie and Reine were confused.

'Did we say something?' Reine asked.

'No it's not you. It's just something...' Roxanne trailed off. She then looked at her cousins and they whispered amongst themselves, 'I can't believe she brought up Lily and Rose.' Lydie could hear Roxanne say.

'She must be angry, then, Aunt Fleur knows how sensitive they are about it, even Hugo, and he wasn't even born.' Fred replied. After that, their voices dropped even lower so neither Lydie nor Reine could hear them. They seemed to be disputing over a fact, Molly and Fred versus Lucy and Roxanne, but the former seemed to win as Molly turned back to the confused twins.

'We used to have two more cousins,' She began, somewhat abruptly, 'called Lily Potter and Rose Weasley. Lily was Albus' twin and Rose was Hugo's older sister. Albus and Lily were born on the tenth of October in two-thousand-and-five and then Rose was born two months later on the tenth of December. But just after Lily's and Albus' first birthday, Lily was kidnapped by rogue Death Eaters, they wanted revenge and they obviously thought that by taking Lily they would get that.'

'Oh...' The twins said together, now they understood.

'Then, while everyone was panicking, Rose was taken too, two days after Lily. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione have never forgiven themselves for it. They were reported missing to the Ministry, but soon after it went out in the papers, the bodies were found and Lily and Rose pronounced dead.'

'I'm so sorry,' replied Lydie.

'Don't be. Just do us one favour, don't tell Albus, James and Hugo that we told you. They are touchy about the subject at the best of times.' Fred said quietly.

'Of course,' Reine said before standing up. 'We better be getting to bed, anyway,' she took Lydie's hand and walked over to the staircase that led up to their dormitory. They climbed it and when they got to their room they silently took out their books and began to do their homework.


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning Albus seemed back to his usual self, as did James and Hugo. True to their word, however, Lydie and Reine kept the boys in the dark about their newly acquired knowledge. Fleur also seemed to have screamed herself out the night before as she was cheerily talking to her sister and Harry at the breakfast table.

After eating, Lydie and Reine, along with Albus left the hall, collected their bags and made their way downstairs to the Potions classroom where their first lesson of the day would take place. When they arrived, Professor Crawford, a tall severe looking woman, was standing outside of the door with her wand in hand, she directed the three fourth years into the classroom without any discussion, as usual, and they took their seats. Soon the rest of the class arrived and the lesson began.

'The Ancestry Potion,' Professor Crawford began, 'It is a simple draft which is not used frequently, yet rather helpful in a handful of situations. Does anyone know what it is used for?'

The lesson that day was being shared with Slytherin house, so very few hands went up. Lydie and Reine, however, both knew the answer.

'Yes, Miss De Sauveterre?' The Professor didn't make her choice very clear; she noticed this and corrected herself, 'Reine?'

'The Ancestry Potion is used to show a person their ancestry, hence the name. If brewed correctly and completed with the appropriate spell, the person whose blood was used in the potion will be able to, literally, grow their family tree.' Reine explained.

'Perfect. Five points to Gryffindor. Today we will begin to brew the potion. Please open you textbooks to page three-hundred-and-ninety-four and read the instructions. Once you have done that, please get out your cauldrons and ingredients and complete steps one to ten before putting the result in a bottle to continue with in tomorrow's lesson.'

Lydie and Reine followed their Professor's orders and by the end of the lesson they had bottled their potion and placed it on Professor Crawford's desk. Nursing cuts on their fingers (blood had been a necessary part of the potion), the class left the dungeon and made their way upstairs to go outside for break time. Although it was cold, the sun was in the sky and there wasn't a cloud in sight, Lydie and Reine walked over to a bench at the edge of the courtyard underneath window and sat down. Lydie took out a book from her bag to read, while Reine changed her mind and decided to go to the library to review her Ancient Runes translation before the lesson after lunch, that day.

'You mean to tell me they are repeating the tasks?' The window above her was open, so Lydie heard the husky, heavily accented voice from the inside the corridor behind her. It definitely wasn't a French accent, more Eastern European, probably someone from Durmstrang.

'Not all of them, just two of them, the one in the lake and the one in the maze. But they have changed the order, somewhat, the first task will take place in the Black Lake and the last in the Maze; but I don't know what will be the second task.' Someone else replied. He spoke with a Standard English accent.

'Do we tell them? The champions? We all started out on an even footing, Karkaroff told me, Maxime told Fleur, Hagrid told you and you told Cedric.' The Bulgarian man spoke again. Lydie assumed that he was Viktor Krum. The other man (which Lydie had deduced was Harry Potter) must have shot him a questioning look because he then continued, 'Of course I knew about that, as soon as we picked the dragons from the bag before the task, I knew. It was obvious really, considering that no one looked surprised.'

'Fair enough... But we can't.' Harry concluded. There was silence for a few seconds before Viktor spoke again.

'I cannot believe they are resurrecting this tournament again. Whose idea was it?' He asked, somewhat accusingly.

'Don't look at me. I run the Auror Department and I can assure you, everyone there was against it, as was everyone in Hermione's Department. It was probably just another plan by the Department of International Magical Cooperation to repair relations after their outburst at the rest of Europe after the war; I still don't know why they did that.'

'I suppose we will never know. Anyway, most of the people I spoke to didn't take it very seriously, the only people that did from Bulgaria was the Quidditch team!' joked Viktor.

'I don't think you were the only ones. You know there are three European teams that are refusing to take part in the World Cup next year? I don't know any specifics, as the Department of Magical Games and Sports is trying to keep it quiet, but Ginny managed to get some information out of them.' Harry explained.

'Really? I know that we aren't missing it; the first few games have already been scheduled. I'd like to know who isn't playing though.'

'Wouldn't we all...'

At that moment the bell rang and the two former champions walked off. Lydie packed away her book and ran off to her next lesson; Charms.

After dinner the following evening, Lydie was sitting in the Library completing some homework, she was thinking about the Tournament. After dinner, that evening, Professor Abercrombie had called all of the champions aside where he (Annabelle recounted afterwards) had told them a riddle:

_Go to where the element of the serpent's house is abundant,  
To pass this test, one must be valiant,  
Some things cannot function here, such as parchment,  
Nor candle nor fire, always lambent,  
An hour long you'll have to find,_

_The things that otherwise will be left behind_

Lydie knew part of the answer already. The place where the '_element of the serpent's house is abundant' _was the Black Lake, she knew that much from the conversation she had overheard during break time. '_Some things cannot function here, such as parchment,  
Nor candle nor fire, always lambent,' _That made sense, too, parchment disintegrates in water and you cannot light a fire or candle there either. But '_An hour long you'll have to find, the things that otherwise will be left behind' _confused Lydie, she knew something would be taken from the champions, but she didn't know what.

Homework forgotten, Lydie collected as many old Daily Prophets as possible. She eventually came across one from February of 1994, judging by the headline, she had found the right one.

_'Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament Proves to be a Hit!_

_The second task of the Triwizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry took place yesterday morning._

_Champions Harry Potter, Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory had to collect golden eggs as a part of the first task which later were discovered to be clue of the second._

_On the morning of the second task it was announced that the champions would have one hour to find something taken from them in the Black Lake. It seems that although they all had figured out the clue, some were more prepared than others. While his older counterparts arrived at the lake dressed in swimsuits, underage champion, Harry Potter came looking rather dishevelled and dressed in his school uniform!_

_Although the champions had only one hour to recover what was taken from them, all took longer than that to complete the task, with Fleur Delacour having to forfeit after forty minutes as she was attacked by Grindylows while at the bottom of the lake._

_The first champion the resurface from the lake (having used a Bubble-Head charm to breathe) was Cedric Diggory and with him he brought his girlfriend, a confused Miss Cho Chang, a fifth year student at Hogwarts. It then became apparent that the thing taken from the four champions was 'the person they would miss most' as revealed to us by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, yesterday evening._

_Soon after, Viktor Krum appeared with a young Miss Hermione Granger in tow. Miss Granger is said to be a fourth year student at Hogwarts and is a close friend of Harry Potter. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of transfiguration to complete the task._

_As the two hour mark approached Harry Potter was nowhere to be found, however just as a search party was about to be sent down, the heads of Ronald Weasley, another close friend of Harry Potter, and Gabrielle Delacour, younger sister of Fleur Delacour, pierced the surface, followed by Harry Potter, himself!_

_It is said that Harry refused to return to the surface until all of the hostages had been rescued, going against the wishes of the Mer-people of the Black Lake to resuce Gabrielle when fellow champion, Fleur Delacour, did not arrive. However this act of bravery awarded him extra points, and he was awarded second place, behind Cedric Diggory! The places are as follows:_

_1__st__ Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory  
3__rd__ Viktor Krum  
4__th__ Fleur Delacour_

_I will strive to keep you updated on the developments of this extraordinary tournament!'_

As Lydie finished reading the article she was shocked. _An hour long you'll have to find, the things that otherwise will be left behind _probably meant the person that the champion would miss the most, but _things _was in the plural, would it be more than one person? With that in mind, she rushed to finish her homework and then returned to Gryffindor tower.

'Where have you been?' Asked Reine who was lying on her bed with a quill in her hand, hovering over a piece of parchment.

'I said I was doing homework in the Library.' Replied Lydie.

'Yes, an hour-and-a-half ago. You said that you'd only take forty-five minutes!'

'Oh, sorry. It's just I was thinking about the riddle for the champions, that's all.

'Why are you worrying? It has nothing to do with us. Besides, this is aimed at seventeen-year-olds; there is no way you'll be able to figure it out.'

'Well, what if I have?' Lydie then explained her theory to her twin, who was utterly surprised.

'Are you going to tell Annabelle?'

'I'll keep it to myself for a while. Unless she can't figure it out on her own, which is unlikely.'

The door to the dormitory swing open and in rushed Annabelle. She knelt down in front of her trunk and began rifling inside it, throwing clothes, books and the odd shoe behind her. She muttered incomprehensible things and ignored her roommates' questions until she finally pulled out one book which she then flicked through.

'Aha!'

'What?' The twins chorused.

'I found it! The element of the serpent's house is water! That means the task will take place in the lake!'

'Exactly,' replied Lydie, who was now sitting on her bed.

'What do you mean 'exactly'?'

'I figured out the riddle in the library, earlier. You'll have one hour to find something from the bottom of the lake. I recommend the Bubble-head Charm but people used Semi-Transfiguration and Gillyweed last time, it seemed to work.' Lydie explained matter-of-factly, to a shocked Annabelle.

'You knew?! And you didn't tell me?!'

'Well admittedly you only arrived thirty seconds ago and then you wouldn't listen to either one of us. But what's the problem? I'm telling you now.'

Annabelle sighed as if she was going to begin a long argument. Reine took the opportunity to grab her wash bag and go into the bathroom before the two girls started yelling. However, Annabelle simply admitted defeat and said:

'So what else did you find out?'

'Last time, the thing the champion had to rescue was a person, the person that they would have missed the most, it's likely that you will have to do the same although it might be two people or a person and a possession, or something. Although the riddle says that they will be left behind after one hour, they won't. As I said before I recommend the Bubble-Head Charm to stay down there... Oh, before I forget, beware of the Grindylows. Fleur came last because she was attacked by them and had to resurface before she found her sister.' Lydie continued.

Annabelle asked questions about the task and the three girls discussed strategies long into the night. When they finally all went to bed, they fell asleep instantly.


	4. Chapter 4

The late night took its toll and all three of the girls woke up half an hour before lessons were due to begin. It was all right for Annabelle who had a free period, but the twins, having gotten dressed, had to run from the dormitory to the dining hall to the dungeons in the space of fifteen minutes, still munching on toast as they took their seats in the Potions classroom. It was a happy coincidence that Professor Crawford was running five minutes late.

'Please collect your ingredients, open your textbooks to page three-hundred-and-ninety four and continue with the last five steps of the Ancestry Potion. Your concoctions from yesterday are on your desks! After completing step twelve, check your potion with me!' She told the class as she rushed through the door and towards her office. 'I shall be back in a few moments!' The professor called before he disappeared into her study.

Lydie and Reine poured the contents of their vials into their cauldrons then followed the last two instructions. Lydie picked up the jar of dried lavender and added the required amount to her deep red potion. The lavender dissolved then as she stirred it, the colour slowly changed to a pale blue, not dissimilar to the colour of her school uniform. She left it to simmer for exactly ten minutes, before adding the final ingredient of Lethe River Water. The potion turned completely transparent at this addition and was the consistency of water, which was ideal, and Lydie held her hand up.

Professor Crawford walked over and inspected it, even tasted it, and with her approval, Lydie collected a small, terracotta pot filled with earth from the front of the class and placed it on her desk. By this time Reine had also successfully completed the potion and was carrying an identical pot across the room.

Lydie filled a jug with the potion inside her cauldron and poured it over the soil, saturating it, and causing it to turn transparent. Following the instructions, she then left it to rest for ten minutes, using the spare time to tidy away her cauldron and ingredients.

Looking around the classroom, all of the Ravenclaws and most of the Gryffindors (save two) had got the potion right and were now packing away; pots filled with earth sat on most of the tables. As Lydie looked at the clock to see how much time she had before she could continue with her work (two minutes), she saw Albus sitting at his desk, looking sad, the twins exchanged glances confirming what the other was thinking; Albus was pining for Lily again. Although she considered going to talk to him, Lydie thought it best to leave him for the time being. After all, he didn't know that Molly, Roxanne and Fred had told her everything.

Two minutes later, Lydie looked at the contents of the pot. What was previously transparent soil was now a kind of clear gel, which seemed to be as thick as custard. She picked up her wand and pointed it at the pot and after reading the first spell, said it aloud.

'Cresco Arbor.'

First a tiny brown speck appeared in the middle of the pot, it then sprouted silvery roots and then a trunk and finally branches and leaves. Much like a patronus, the tree that appeared was said to reflect the personality of the person who grew it. The book had also said that the tree was often the same as the person's wand wood. Therefore Lydie, who had a Willow, ten-and-a-quarter, swishy wand grew a silver Willow tree. Reine's tree, which had just grown, was a silvery Cherry Tree.

The twins, pleased with their work, smiled at each other, just as Professor Crawford rushed over to highlight their 'perfect execution' of the spell to the rest of the class. Beaming, Lydie scanned the other trees that were now sprouting out of the potions around the room. There was everything from Elm to Pine standing silvery and about a foot tall in the pots. Lydie noticed that everyone's was different, except for two, her own and Albus'. Albus had an identical Willow tree sitting on his desk.

'Now! As all of you have finally grown your trees, say the second incantation at the bottom of your page and the faces of your family will appear!' Professor Crawford exclaimed to the class. She then walked over to Lydie's and Reine's table to watch them.

Again, Lydie read the spell and pointed her wand at the pot.

'Familia Revelio.'

At the top of the trunk appeared her own face, floating and shimmering in gold. Wispy lines then moved off to the left and to the right connecting other faces that were beginning to become visible, one either side (representing siblings) of her two above her (representing parents) and two above both of those (representing grandparents). Lydie was confused, she definitely didn't have two siblings.

When the wisps of vapours had finished forming, Lydie inspected the faces on her tree. Her parents and Reine were not there and instead of them, two familiar looking boys smiled up at her from either side of her own face on the tree. Albus and James Potter. And in the placed of her parents were Harry Potter and a woman with long fiery, red hair.

Lydie looked up at the Professor who was also looking at her tree, wearing the same bemused expression as she was.

'Are you sure you picked up the right potion at the beginning of the lesson Miss De Sauveterre?'

'Yes, I'm sure Professor. The bottle has my name on it.' Lydie held up the glass vial, which, indeed, had 'Lydie De Sauveterre' written on a label tied to the neck. She nodded and continued to inspect the tree. Lydie looked over to Reine and expected her to be looking at her but she wasn't, she was staring at her own tree. Lydie only recognised one of the faces, Hugo Weasley.

Professor Crawford then snapped out of her daze.

'Class dismissed! You will use the rest of this lesson to go to the library and write three feet on the theory and uses of the Ancestry Potion!' She explained. Everyone began to pack their bags and head out of the door, 'Except you Mr Potter. I need you to remain here.'

Albus put down his bag and walked over to the Professor who was still stood by Lydie's and Reine's desk. She was now inspecting Rose's tree.

'Professor, did we do the potion wrong?' Reine asked as Albus looked wide eyed at Lydie's tree.

'No, you did it... perfectly... If you'll excuse me, I'll be right back.' And she raced from the classroom, leaving Albus, Lydie and Reine standing in silence.

Fifteen minutes later Professor Crawford reappeared with Harry Potter and Professor McGonagall, both looking quite confused. They stopped in the doorway and were talking in hushed voices.

'Are you sure it isn't just a mistake?' McGonagall asked.

'It wasn't a mistake. I checked and double checked the potions they both did it perfectly.' Professor Crawford replied.

'Well if you're sure, I trust you.'

'But we found the bodies.' Harry's voice cracked as he said it.

'There must be ways to fake that kind of thing.' Crawford replied, gravely. She then walked towards the three fourth-years followed by the Harry and McGonagall. The latter inspected the trees on the desks then nodded at Harry and Professor Crawford, exchanging deeply significant looks. She then spoke with a small smile on her face.

'Welcome back Miss Potter, Miss Weasley.'

'Are you saying..?' Harry began.

'I am indeed, Harry.'

'What is going on here?' Reine asked, nervously.

'Take a seat girls, you too Albus.' McGonagall said. She took a breath before she began.

'You aren't Lydie and Reine De Sauveterre, you are Lily Potter and Rose Weasley. Fourteen years ago, you two were kidnapped from your homes by Death Eaters. Lily first, and Rose followed a week later. A large portion of the Auror department was sent out on a search and two dead bodies were found and identified as yours. Which has obviously been proven incorrect, today.'

'So these trees are correct?' said Lily, she was beginning to take everything. 'I'm Lily Potter? Albus is my brother?' McGonagall nodded.

'Now, I shall go and Floo Ginny, Ron and Hermione. I would like you to come to the Headmaster's office in ten minutes time.' Professor McGonagall turned and left the room, as did Professor Crawford.

Lily stood up and took a tentative step towards her father who had tears in his eyes. Harry held out his arms and Lily hugged him. She felt extremely peaceful and happy being in his embrace. Something she had never experienced before. Then everything went black.

_Lily was lying in a cot, staring up at a mobile, little figurines of dragons and hippogriffs hanging from it. She looked around. The walls of the room were a sunshine yellow colour and there were toys scattered around the floor, a woman with long, red hair was couched on the ground, picking them up. Lily knew instantly that it was her mother._

_'Dear me, you two are so messy!' She said, smiling, as she stood up and placed the toys in a box. She walked over to another cot a few metres away from Lily's and kissed the child inside of it, a boy, with scruffy black hair, Albus. She then walked over to the cot Lily was lying in and kissed her, too._

_'Sleep well.' She said as she left the room. Lily, however, didn't feel tired. She reached up and played with a hippogriff on the mobile, which was directly above her head, giggling._

_Lily's head snapped towards the window at a sound, she saw the window swing open and a black cloaked and masked figure climb through. Just as Lily opened her mouth to cry, the figure pointed his wand at her._

_'Silencio.' Lily couldn't cry. When she tried all that came out was a faint whistle from the back of her throat. _

_The cloaked figure picked her up and then there was a loud crack. Lily couldn't breathe for a while and she felt as though she was spinning but everything was dark. Eventually the sensation stopped. The person was holding her roughly in one arm, and he was walking. Lily kept her eyes tightly shut but she knew she was outside. The wind blew through her hair and she was cold._

_Eventually the cloaked person carried her inside. Lily opened her eyes and saw that she was inside a house. She was carried down flight after flight of stairs until they reached a door made out of metal bars. He opened it and dropped Lily on the ground, inside of the room, which was damp. He pointed his wand at the baby, again._

_'Crucio!'_

_Lily screamed and cried, louder than she had ever done before, breaking through the Silencing Charm which had been cast over her. She writhed on the floor, her body contorting in ways a baby's body really shouldn't. _

_'Stupify.' The man said, and baby Lily fell unconscious._


	5. Chapter 5

Lily opened her eyes. She was lying in a bed, somewhere, and dressed in her pyjamas. The sun streamed through the windows and she assumed it to be about midday. There was a group of people talking at the end of her bed which included Harry and his wife, Professor McGonagall and someone who Lily assumed to be the Hogwarts matron. Lily sat up.

Harry was the first person to notice his daughter's wakefulness and rushed over to her bedside.

'Do you feel alright?' He asked. Lily nodded. 'You had me worried. One minute I had you in my arms, the next you were on the ground screaming.' Harry explained. Lily shuddered, recalling the dream.

The woman with red hair then walked over and sat down in the chair on the left side of the bed, opposite Harry. Her eyes were red and puffy, she had obviously been crying.

'I'm not sure you'll remember me, but-' she began but Lily interrupted her.

'Mum!' Lily threw her arms around Ginny, who was surprised, but wholeheartedly hugged her back.

Madam Pomfrey then stepped in.

'Now, if you'll let me examine Miss Potter, and everything is in order I will permit her to leave.' The matron pulled the screens around her bed and checked Lily over. Madam Pomfrey was content that Lily was alright and placed her uniform on the bed and left her to change.

After she was discharged from the Hospital Wing, Lily and her parents made their way to Professor Abercrombie's office. Although they had only met today, Lily felt closer to them than she had ever done with her adoptive mother and father, and so it didn't feel strange as she walked with Harry's arm over her shoulder and Ginny holding her hand.

When they arrived at the gargoyle that guarded the staircase to the Head's office, Harry looked puzzled for a moment before announcing:

'Pear drops.'

The gargoyle sprung to life and allowed Harry and his family to pass. Although Professor Snape hadn't, all of the head teachers of Hogwarts had used the names of various muggle sweets as the password to the office, as a tribute to Professor Dumbledore, whose portrait found it very amusing.

Harry knocked on the door to the study and after hearing a faint 'come in,' in reply, he pushed open the door and led Ginny and Lily inside.

Professor Abercrombie was sitting at his desk with a hard expression, and in front of it were ten chairs, three of which were already filled by Rose and two adults, who Lily assumed were Ron and Hermione Weasley, Rose's parents, who stopped talking as Harry, Ginny and Lily entered. The headmaster gestured for them to sit, but Rose stood up and rushed over to hug Lily.

'Are you okay?' She asked, concerned for her cousin's wellbeing. Lily nodded and sat down in between her parents, who were very glad that Lily had accepted them so willingly. Whilst she was unconscious, McGonagall had told Harry and Ginny that Lily may not be very accepting, might even blame them for what happened, but she didn't, especially not after the dream.

Professor Abercrombie didn't say anything he simply moved his gaze to the two Ancestry trees which Reine (now Rose) and Lydie (now Lily) had produced in their Potions lesson, earlier that day. It wasn't until Professor McGonagall appeared with James, Hugo and Albus, the two former looking very confused but the latter quite worried, until he saw Lily sitting in a chair, as perky as ever, then his expression relaxed.

James and Albus took the two seats to the left of Harry and Hugo sat in front of his father, next to Rose. Although there was a chair prepared for her, Professor McGonagall opted to stand.

'Well I'm not sure where to begin, really.' Professor Abercrombie explained. 'Two people we thought to be dead are obviously not, as shown by these Ancestry Trees, which, by the way, are some of the best I have seen in all my years as a teacher.' He gestured to the two silvery, potted trees on his desk. 'The Ministry have agreed to launch a full investigation and they have the full support from the French Ministry in Paris who have agreed to investigate the orphanage from which Lily and Rose were adopted from, as well as Madam De Sauveterre and her ex-husband if they can.' He turned to locked eye contact with Lily and Rose, 'Are you too all right with that?' They nodded.

'It's not like was saw much of her anyway. We only ever went home for a fortnight a year.' Rose explained to the room. Everyone looked at her, surprised, except for Albus, who already knew.

'It was better to stay at school. When we were at the house we weren't supposed to leave and Mama was never around, she always had to go away on business trips.' Lily told them.

'What is your adopted mother's profession? Presuming she is a witch?' asked McGonagall.

'She is a witch, but I don't know what she does. She told us it had something to do with the ministries in France and Switzerland. Maybe a liaison officer, I don't know.'

'I see. But one good thing is that the custody issue can be sorted within the next few days, providing you wish to return to live with your birth parents.' The Headmaster explained.

'Of course!'

'Definitely!'

The two girls nodded their heads with such vigour that they were nursing their sore necks for a few minutes afterwards, as the adults spoke about some of the finer details.

'Now, I have one last matter to discuss with you all, about schooling. It is up to all of you whether Lily and Rose remain at Beauxbatons for the duration of their school years or to attend Hogwarts, beginning in September. I understand it is a matter you may want some time to discuss so I will not rush you; it is ten months away, after all.'

Everyone nodded.

'Well, have a think about it and let myself and Madam Maxime know when you have reached a decision. Now, I am becoming a little peckish and I suggest that we all go and get some lunch. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, would you care to join us?'

'I'd love to, Professor!' Hermione exclaimed, 'Ron, George can run the shop on his own for a few hour, can't he?' Ron smiled.

'I'm sure he can.'

'Are you staying, Mum?' asked Lily. Ginny almost began to cry at the sound of her daughter, whom she thought she had lost, calling her 'mum'. She nodded with a wide smile on her face, misty eyed.

As they walked downstairs into the entrance hall, Lily dropped back a little. She just wanted some time to think about everything, even if it was only a few seconds. This plan was futile, however, as she felt an arm plop down on her shoulder.

'Hey there, sis!' James said to her, with his face just inches from hers, bearing a wide grin. 'How're ya feeling?'

'Happy, a bit overwhelmed.' She replied with a smile. Lily was glad that both of her brothers seemed to have accepted her so warmly. She could only hope that her cousins would be the same.

'I'm not surprised.' James said, still with his arm over her shoulder as they entered the dining hall. He stood about three inches taller than her. Lily assumed he was just using her shoulders as an arm rest. 'Just be prepared for a lot of publicity.'

'What do you mean?'

'You'll understand tomorrow morning, Sunday at the latest. It depends when the Daily Prophet finds out.' He replied, knowingly.

'I'll just take your word for it.' Lily said, still not knowing exactly what he meant as they approached the Gryffindor table.

'Oi! James!' A voice called. Both Lily and James looked over to see Fred beckoning to them, they walked over. 'Got yourself a girlfriend, have you?' The siblings laughed at both the absurdity of the statement, and Fred's ignorance.

'This one? No way!' James replied, still laughing. He took his arm off Lily's shoulder and they both sat down opposite Fred and another two of James' friends.

'Hi Fred!' called Lily. She waved at her cousin.

'Hey Lydie!' He replied.

'It's Lily.' Lily corrected.

'Wow, you have sure adjusted quickly!' James said to her as he bit into a slice of bread. Lily just grinned.

'What's going on?' Fred asked, confused.

'Fred, let me re-introduce you, this is Lily Potter, my sister. Lily, this is Fred, your cousin, son of Uncle George and Aunt Angelina.'

'What?' Fred spluttered, 'But Lily... Surely you know that, James, she's...'

'No she isn't. We thought she was but she isn't.' James replied.

'Look, this morning in potions we were making the Ancestry Potion. It proved that James and Albus are my brothers, Harry and Ginny are my parents, and by extension, you are my cousin. The girl who I thought was my twin, Reine, is actually Rose Weasley, who also never died.' Lily explained, firmly to a dumbstruck Fred. 'There is no plainer way to put it.'

Although it was a Friday and years one through five had the afternoon off, the rest of the day was very busy. Relatives who weren't already in the castle came to visit, Lydie had a hard time trying to remember their names, as did Rose, they all hugged them (and in Mrs Weasley's case cried), and told them how glad they were that they were back.

Eventually, at around four o'clock everyone left and the former twin sisters were able to retreat to their dormitory for the rest of the evening, returning briefly to the Great Hall to eat. Completely exhausted after a mind-blowing day, Lily fell asleep as soon as she laid down and Rose soon followed.


	6. Chapter 6

Lily realised what James had meant by publicity the following morning. Having taken a seat beside Albus and Rose at the breakfast table, she caught sight of a Daily Prophet that someone had left behind, the headline read: LILY POTTER AND ROSE WEASLEY ALIVE!

Lily reached forward, picked up the paper and began to read.

_Lily Potter, first and only daughter of Harry Potter (Head of the Auror Department and defeater of Lord Voldemort) and Ginny Weasley (former captain of the Holyhead Harpies, now senior Quidditch correspondant) and her cousin Rose Weasley were found to be alive and well yesterday morning._

_The two girls (Lily age 15 and Rose age 14), who were kidnapped in a revenge attack by rogue death eaters in 2006, had been living under the names Lydie and Reine De Sauveterre as twins, in the south of France with their 'mother', and attending Beauxbatons Academy of Magic; a highly placed source at the Ministry of Magic told us, yesterday._

_Potter and Weasley are part of the Beauxbatons delegation for this year's Triwizard Tournament and it was through this that their identities were discovered._

_Ancestry Potions were being covered in their first and second Potions lessons and after the 'sisters' grew their own trees the truth became clear._

_'There will be inquiries in both Britain and France in attempt to shed light onto how this situation came about,' another source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us, 'but for the time being, as long as Lily and Rose agree, the custody of them can be transferred back to their birth parents, even without the permission of their adoptive mother.'_

Lily put down the newspaper and sighed.

'_Have you seen this?_' She asked Rose in French, who said nothing but took the newspaper and began to read. Lily then put a spoonful of scrambled eggs on her plate with some bacon and began to eat. She spoke to Albus and James, who had just sat down opposite her, as she ate, until Professor McGonagall tapped her and Rose on the shoulder. Lily looked around, as did Rose and they looked up at the stern-looking woman.

'Harry asked me to tell you that you will be going to the Ministry today to sign some papers. He said that he'll meet you in the entrance hall in half an hour to take you to London by Portkey, where Hermione will be waiting. Understood?'

The two girls nodded and turned back to their breakfast.

Half an hour later, Lily and Rose were standing in the Entrance Hall. They wore thick, cropped cloaks over the top of their muggle clothing, in forest green for Lily and sky blue for Rose, and both had their wands tucked inside their left, knee-high, leather boot, that being the only place available.

'Ah, there you are.' The cousins, who were chatting about what they would face at the Ministry, turned to see Harry standing halfway down the staircase. 'We must get going if we want to get there in time for our appointment.' He then hopped down the rest of the stairs and strode across the hall and out of the front doors, with his daughter and niece following closely behind.

'We would have left from the headmaster's office, it's the only place where you can take a Portkey out of the school from, except he has a very important meeting, today, so we will have to leave the grounds before we can take the Portkey to London.' He explained. Lily and Rose murmured in agreement as they walked along the path.

After twenty minutes of fast walking, they reached the gates to the school. Harry muttered something about the security measures being much less than he remembered them when he was at school and then performed a silent spell and pushed open the gate. He allowed Lily and Rose to go through, before following and closing the gate again. Harry then took out an empty potions vial and looked at his watch.

'This Portkey will take us to the atrium of the Ministry. It leaves in a minute, so hold on and don't let go, whatever you do!' He told them.

'Okay!'

'Sure!'

Lily and Rose held onto the Portkey, and soon enough, the telltale jerk from behind the navel occurred and they were spinning into darkness...

Having landed with a thud in the middle of the Ministry Atrium, Lily rubbed her knees, which were sore after the impact, as did Rose. However, Harry seemed to have landed with ease and was now stowing the bottle in his robes. Although there were a fair few people standing around in the hall, which was lined with fireplaces, none of them seemed to look up when the Head of the Auror Department appeared via Portkey along with two teenage girls who had been missing, and confirmed dead, for fourteen years.

'This way,' Harry indicated towards a large front desk at the far end of the room. They walked towards at and stopped when they were standing in front. A young, blonde witch was sitting behind the desk and was levitating her quill, putting so much concentration into it that she didn't notice that there were people waiting to speak to her, even after harry cleared his throat. He eventually spoke up.

'Harry Potter, Head of the Auror Department, escorting Lily Potter and Rose Weasley to an appointment with the Junior Wizengamot Administration.'

The witch looked up, slightly startled that someone so high up in the Ministry should catch her acting in the way she had been, and tried to rectify her mistake. 'Yes Mr Potter, of course Mr Potter.' She then fumbled with an ancient typewriter and after a couple of minutes two nametags popped out and she handed them the girls. Lily looked at hers, it read: _Lily Potter, Junior Wizengamot Administration Appointment_, Rose's was almost the same, the only difference being the name. 'Please hand your wands into the Security Bureaux' the pointed to a door a few metres away, 'to be checked.'

'Thank-you, Nathalie.' Harry said.

'Harry! There you are!' called Hermione as she rushed over to them from the lifts. 'I was wondering when you'd get here. Hello Rose, darling, hello Lily, dear.' She smiled and hugged her daughter and niece. 'Are you ready to go up then?'

'Not quite, need to make a quick stop to have their wands checked, and then we can go.' Replied Harry, as they crossed the room towards the Security Bureaux.

After the quick stop at security, Hermione, Harry, Lily and Rose walked over to the lifts and got into the first one. The doors closed behind them and the lift moved downwards.

Eventually the mechanical voice announced that they had arrived at: 'Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Auror Office, Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, Improper Use of Magic Office, The Wizengamot and Wizengamot Administration Services.'

'This is us.' Harry explained, and they got out of the lift, with a couple of flying memos, and started down the corridor.

Lily was unsure for how long they were walking, but after what seemed like an eternity, they arrived outside a door labelled: _Junior Wizengamot, Administration_. Hermione pushed it open and they walked into a high ceilinged, bustling office. People everywhere were writing or talking or carrying papers. As they walked a few people greeted Harry, or Hermione, or both, but no one took much notice of the girls they were with.

Soon they arrived at another door, where a stout wizard holding a clipboard with a quill was waiting.

'Names,' He said, unceremoniously.

'Harry Potter, Lily Potter, Hermione Weasley and Rose Weasley, here for an appointment with Allison Macmillan.' Harry explained. The wizard wrote something on the parchment then admitted them into a much smaller office.

'Wait here, Mrs Macmillan will see you shortly. Please take a seat.' The man then left them standing in the office. The office was very bare, lacking in any personal touches. The walls were a sky blue colour and floor was mahogany. All of the furniture was also mahogany.

Harry sat down in the nearest of the four chairs set out in front of the desk, his daughter, niece and sister-in-law followed suit.

They door, which they had entered through, opened again, and in walked a tall woman with dark brown hair, twisted into a bun at the nape of her neck. She was wearing a grey blazer and skirt with a white blouse underneath her pale blue wizarding robes that matched the rest of the room, these, Lily thought, were not dissimilar to her own school ones. They all stood up.

'Ah, Harry, Hermione, so nice to see you again!' she exclaimed, 'what can I do for you?' Mrs Macmillan took a seat behind her desk, and gestured for the others to resume their places.

Harry took out an envelope which was sealed with dark red wax, and handed it to her. She opened it and began to read the letter with a pointed expression.

'I see,' Allison nodded, 'If you'll just let me gather the appropriate forms, they can be filled out within the hour and sent to Paris to be approved by Monday.' She stood up and began to rifle in a filing cabinet.

Two hours later, Harry, Hermione, Lily and Rose had finally finished filling out the forms and pieces of parchment, this had taken more than double the amount of time than previously expected. Lily had also needed to recount the day she had been taken, which she knew all too well from the dream, a difficult task made easier with Harry and Hermione's support, however she was crying by the end of it.

They left Mrs Macmillan's office, made their way back to the lift and boarded it. Hermione went into a different one however, returning to her office on Level One ('Minister for Magic and Support Staff'), leaving Harry, Lily and Rose to return to Hogwarts and assuring them that she would come to visit on the day of the first Task.

When the lift doors opened in the Atrium, they were met with utter pandemonium. Tens, maybe even hundreds of journalists and photographers were crowding the room and when they saw Harry arrive with his daughter and niece, they went crazy, asking questions and taking pictures.

Harry grabbed Rose and Lily by the hands and steered them through the unruly crowd. Every now and then he yelled 'NO COMMENT!' as they made their way through the people, towards the fireplaces.

'Go to Number Twelve, Peverall Lane, Godrics Hollow!' He called to the girls as he thrust floo powder into their hands. Lily went first, stepping into the grate and yelled the address, after throwing the powder she disappeared into green flames.

Lily landed with a thump in the fireplace of an unknown house. She moved into the room, dusting off the ash from her clothes and looked around.

There were two sofas facing the fireplace with a coffee table in the middle. The walls were a clean, cream colour and the carpet matched. On the mantelpiece there were lots of pictures of Albus, James, Harry and Ginny, as well as one of all of the Potters and Weasleys. But one caught Lily's eye: Three babies lying down, laughing. One of them was unmistakably Albus: so young, yet he had a mop of messy, black hair with emerald coloured eyes. The other two took longer to place: both had wispy red hair but one had hazel eyes, the other very dark brown. Their features were slightly different.

Just as Rose appeared in the fireplace Lily realised who the babies were. They were herself and Rose when they were very young. Lily smiled.

'Hello?' called a voice from outside the room. Lily recognised it as Ginny's.

'Hi Mum!' She shouted back. Ginny then rushed into the room.

'What are you two doing here?'

'We went to the Ministry to fill out some forms but loads of journalists found out and were crowding the Atrium. Dad abandoned the Portkey and sent us here.' Lily explained to her mother who was now hugging her, just as Harry spun into the fireplace.

'It's mad back there! Rita Skeeter and a load of other journalistswere blocking all of the exits! They wouldn't let me leave!'

'What did you say, darling?' asked a concerned Ginny as she kissed him.

'Oh just that we were there to sort out some legal things, and then I jumped into the fireplace when they weren't looking,' Harry was laughing now.

'Well as you're here you may as well stay for lunch. I can rustle up some chicken salad if you'd like, or some soup?' Ginny offered.

'Yes, we may as well. We missed our Portkey slot while we were trying to get out of the Ministry. I better send word to the school that we are going to be late back, though.' Harry replied.

'I'll leave you to do that then, dear. I bought some more Floo Powder the other day, it's on the mantelpiece. Girls, come into the kitchen.'

'No, it's fine, I'll apparate!' Harry called just before a loud crack echoed throughout the house.

Ginny, Lily and Rose left the living room and walked through the door to the kitchen. While Ginny began to cook, Lily and Rose sat down at the table.

'So, how did it go?'

'Yeah, it went well. We just had to spend a couple of hours filling out forms, most of which have to be sent to Paris on Monday.' said Lily who was watching her mother casting spells to make the food. Ingredients and utensils flew around the room with a wave of Ginny's wand; she had inherited her mother's knack for household spells. Something that Ron had been keen for Ginny to teach Hermione.

Just as the final bowl of soup landed on the table, Harry entered the room and sat down in front of his food.

'Just spoke to Professor McGonagall; she's going to contact the Magical Transport Department, to arrange for her fireplace to be connected with ours, after lunch, side along apparition is too risky.'

'Wonderful. We're having tomato soup and chicken salad.' Ginny told him as she sat down herself. 'Dig in!'

Lily enjoyed the afternoon very much, chatting with her parents, getting to know them. She noticed that Rose, who hadn't spoken to them much at all, was also warming up to them. After eating they went for a stroll around Godric's Hollow, the village where Harry had lived until his parents were killed when he was a year old, then returned to after he and Ginny got married. Lily was touched to find that Harry's mother was her namesake.

Eventually, by four o'clock, the connection had been set and Harry, Rose and Lily returned to Hogwarts. McGonagall didn't look up from her work as they crashed into the grate, but merely told them not to get ash all over her carpet. Harry remained behind in her office to speak with her but Lily and Rose returned to the Gryffindor common room.

As soon as they pushed open the portrait, Hugo rushed over and dragged Rose off to talk. He seemed to have grown very attached to her in the last two days, and as Lily looked at them she saw their striking resemblance they had to each other. Just as she was musing about this, James and Albus jumped in front of her.

'Where have you been?!' they shouted loudly.

'The Ministry, and your house.'

'Yes, but you were due back at eleven-thirty, not four. We thought something had happened!' Albus was still shouting.

'Wait, our house?!'

'Yes; anyway,' She then briefly explained the fiasco at the Ministry and the afternoon she had spent in Godric's Hollow.

'I'm not really that surprised.' remarked Albus.

'What do you mean? I suppose it must have been pretty shocking news to have two babies kidnapped by rogue Death Eaters, even more so to find them alive, fourteen years later, but isn't fifty different journalists with accompanying photographers a bit excessive.' Lily said.

'Yeah, maybe, but when you' he pointed at James, 'started at Hogwarts there were loads of them at the station. It just comes with the territory, I suppose. Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron and Hugo get it as well, the others, not so much.' Albus explained.

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**AN: It's be lovely if some of you could review! Pretty please? - BellaDeS**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: SORRY! I know I haven't posted in ages and I know this is short! I'll try and get chapters up more quickly in the future (probably two or three more today because I have a lot already written on my laptop), if I can! Also I forgot to mention this earlier: Albus and Lily are twins in this story! I know that according to JK Rowling they are two years apart but I changed it for the purpose of this story! Now... Enjoy Chapter 7! **

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By Monday morning, the school was abuzz with the news that Lily Potter and Rose Weasley had been found, despite it having been in the _Daily Prophet_ two days prior, very few students actually read the paper. The Hogwarts Students were trying to figure out which of the Beauxbatons Students were the girls in question, as no one had paid close enough attention to the sorting when they arrived to know who was who and in which house. The truth, however, was spreading fast.

The first task of the Triwizard Tournament was also approaching with speed, and the champions were preparing. Annabelle, who already knew the nature of the task, was coolly confident, Aleksander Tomov also seemed to have figured out the clue, but Louis was struggling. Lily watched him from afar, unsure of whether she should tell him what she knew or not. On one hand they were cousins, she should tell him, on the other, Lily was part of the Beauxbatons delegation and if any of her schoolmates found out she had told the Hogwarts champion the ins and outs of the task, they would likely skin her alive, her and Louis being family or not.

One month later, it was seven o'clock on the evening before the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Lily was sitting in the Library with Albus and Rose; they were finishing their Charms essays for Professor Flitwick. Lily could see Louis across the room sitting at another desk, surrounded by books, trying to figure out what he would face tomorrow morning.

'S_hould we tell him?' _asked Rose, in French. Albus continued with his work, ignorant to their conversation.

_'I think we should, the task is tomorrow. He needs to know what he is facing.' _replied Lily.

_'But what if the other girls find out?'_

They were cut off by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Lily, Rose and Albus looked towards the source of the noise, they saw Professor Longbottom standing beside the shelves labelled: _Charms: A-H. _

'Hi Neville,' Said Albus unenthusiastically, he had been working on the conclusion of his essay for the best part of an hour now and was nowhere near finished.

'Hello Professor!' Chorused the girls.

'Please, when we are outside of the classroom, call me Neville,' He told them with a smile, 'Now, Lily, I need you to come with me to Professor Abercrombie's office.'

Lily had a sudden flash of realisation; she knew what this was about.

'_Tell Louis. I'll see you in the morning.' _She told her cousin as she stood up. 'Okay, Neville. See you Albus.'

Lily followed the Professor out of the Library, pausing only once to look over her shoulder. She saw Rose talking to Louis. _Good, _she thought.

'What is this about?' Lily asked Neville, politely.

'I don't know. I am merely the messenger.' He told her as they strode through the corridors.

They eventually arrived at the gargoyle which guarded the Headmaster's office. Neville said the password (it was still 'Pear Drops') and they climbed the stairs. When they reached the door the study, Neville knocked and they were admitted.

Inside there were many people, aside from Professor Abercrombie, there were the four Heads of Houses: Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout and Professor Vector, the three former champions and the mentors to this year's ones: Viktor Krum, Lily's Aunt Fleur and her father, Harry, and five other students. Lily only recognised two of them: Georgia Russe and Dominique Weasley, the former was a Beauxbatons student who was sorted into Ravenclaw, the latter Lily's cousin, Fleur's daughter. Other than that, there was one large Gryffindor boy who looked to be in sixth or seventh year, a very skinny Slytherin girl who also looked around the same age, and a Durmstrang student who bore striking resemblance to Viktor.

'Now I would like to assure you that before we begin, this was not my idea, only that of the Ministry.' Professor Abercrombie explained. When everyone nodded, he continued. 'Tomorrow is the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. This is virtually the same task as that which was used as the second in the previous tournament,' the old Headmaster then explained it for the benefit of those who were ignorant. 'The difference this time is that there will be double the amount of hostages; each champion will have to save two, per say.'

He looked around the room, locking eye-contact with each person, but no one spoke up.

'One of the hostages will be, as it was in 1995, the person who the champion would miss the most, the other will be the person that their mentor will miss the most.' Before anyone had the chance to protest, he added: 'As I said, this was not my idea, in fact, I expressed my desire for it not to go ahead, Ludo Bagman, who has recently been reinstated as the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports and the instigator of this year's Tournament, ignored my opinions on the matter and insisted that he was inspired by Harry's performance, last time.'

Everyone turned to Harry.

'The hostages are as follows: For Mr Weasley, Mr Hereford' he gestured to the large Gryffindor standing to Lily's right, 'and Miss Potter as the mentor's hostage.' Harry, who was now standing next to his daughter, put his hand on her shoulder. Lily leaned her head on his arm.

'For Miss St Martin, Miss Russe and Miss Weasley as the mentor's hostage, and for Mr Tomov, Miss Parkinson and Mr Krum as the mentor's hostage.

'For this task, I will place you into a bewitched sleep, from which you will awaken from when you return to the surface of the lake. I assure you that it is perfectly safe. Are there any questions?'

'What eez Louis going to theenk when 'ee sees 'ees sister down zer as well as 'ees cousin and best friend? 'Ow will 'ee know 'oo to rescue!?' Fleur exclaimed, 'One can 'hardly theenk straight when zey are down zere trying to save someone zey love from downing!' She was close to tears now, and neither of the other champions looked happy either.

'Fleur hass a point. Louis seems to be greatly disadvantaged here. It vould think that he vould vant to save his sister over anyvone else.' Viktor inputted.

'The ropes tying the hostages to the bottom of the lake will be charmed, allowing only the correct champion to break them, whether it be through spell or other means.' Professor Abercrombie explained. 'Now,' he waved his wand and six chairs appeared, 'will the hostages please take a seat and we shall begin.'

Lily walked over to the chair nearest her, holding her father's hand, completely petrified. The idea of staying underneath the lake for an extended amount of time scared her beyond her wits, but she used everything in her power to remain calm. Professor Abercrombie picked up his wand and began conversing with Professor McGonagall, in hushed tones. Lily turned to her father, who had not left her side. He sensed her worry and tried to calm her.

'You'll be fine, trust me. It's completely safe. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?' Harry said, evenly. Lily nodded and gripped her father's hand. Professor Abercrombie walked over to her.

'Are you ready, Miss Potter?' Lily nodded again. The Professor began muttering spells and moving his wand in complex patters, and the world around Lily faded to darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

The task began at nine o'clock on the following morning. The stands around the lake were filled with people from all three schools and somewhere deep below the surface of the lake, six hostages were trapped, being searched for by three champions who had departed just over twenty minutes ago.

Ginny had come up to the school for the day for the task, as had Bill, Victoire, Ron and Hermione. They stood in a group with Harry, Fleur, Gabrielle, Albus, Rose and Hugo. They watched the lake for any signs of movement.

Roughly forty minutes into the task, the Durmstrang champion returned with both of his hostages; the skinny Slytherin girl and Viktor's son. As soon as they got out of the lake, Madame Pomfrey rushed over to them with blankets and Pepperup Potion, forcing them to drink large goblet-fulls of the stuff, causing their ears to gush with steam.

The parents with children still in the lake were beginning to get worried, even more so as the hour long time limit passed uneventfully. Ludo Bagman, was just about to announce something when Annabelle's head broke the surface.

The seventeen year old was screaming and splashing in the water, she had many cuts on her face.

'_Help!' _She yelled in French, '_Someone get the others out! Quickly!' _

It was only then that the crowd realised that it was serious, that she wasn't just splashing, something was attacking her. Some of the teachers started wading into the water and firing spells at the creatures, which looked similar to Grindylows, however they were a far cry from the domesticated ones that lived with the merpeople. Instead of the usual murky brown, water demon, these ones were jet black with red eyes; and anyone watching could tell that they were fighting to kill.

Somehow, the teachers were able to extricate Annabelle from the creatures but she was bleeding badly. She had deep cuts and bite marks up and down her limbs. Madam Pomfrey went into overdrive, demanding Essence of Dittany among other magical potions from the first aid ten, treating the Beauxbatons student on the grass.

The teachers then started to confer with each other; however this was cut short by Fleur shouting:

'Did you not hear what she said?! THE OTHERS ARE IN DANGER! WE NEED TO GET THEM OUT!'

At Fleur's words everybody jumped into action, ignoring Ludo Bagman's protests that there was nothing to worry about. Less able bodied professors where shepherding students out of the stands and back up towards the castle, while others were preparing to join a search party, which soon left.

Time passed slowly. Those who hadn't gone down to search for the remaining champion and four hostages, including the Weasleys and the Potters, waited on the bank.

A head broke the surface of the water; one of the members of the search party had returned; a young wizard, someone who worked alongside Teddy Lupin in the Auror Department. He was towing a girl dressed in blue Beauxbatons robes, stained with blood, seemingly unconscious. The charm which was meant to have broken when she came above the water didn't

'Lily!' screeched Ginny, who was the first person to see who it was. Lily was pulled out of the water and onto the grassy bank. The girl had deep cuts all over her, as had Annabelle, which were bleeding profusely; she was as white as a sheet. As well as that, there was a large bump on her head (the size of a gold ball) with a cut through it (also bleeding) which looked like it had been inflicted by someone knocking her over the head with a rock.

Ginny held her daughter's hand as Madam Pomfrey tried her best to revive her, with no avail. Harry stood over his wife with a comforting hand on her shoulder, eating the words he had said to Lily the evening before. She most certainly was not fine.

Soon after Lily, Dominique and Louis were pulled from the lake, with the former in the same state as Lily and the latter conscious but injured badly. Georgia and the Gryffindor boy followed with the rest of the search party, neither were too badly hurt; just a few moderately deep cuts here and there.

Madam Pomfrey was unsure of how to treat the injuries; the cause being an animal she had never seen before. She ordered for all of the casualties to be taken to the hospital wing. Lily and Dominique were carried (both of them still being unconscious, whether it be from blood loss or otherwise) the other three were escorted by professors or (in Louis' case) their parents.

When Dominique and Lily awoke a few hours later, Madam Pomfrey was making arrangements to have the two girls transferred to St Mungos, Louis, Annabelle, Georgia and the Gryffindor boy had been taken there as soon as the matron had contacted the London hospital, which had insisted that anyone injured be moved there as the identity of the grindylow-like creatures had not been uncovered. Madam Pomfrey was agreeable to this.

Lily was lying in her bed in the Hospital Wing. She tried not to move as the cuts that covered her body stung terribly and the bump on her head, although smaller in size, made even the smallest head movements painful. Dominique was lying in the bed next to her staring into space and their parents spoke in hushed tones a few metres away.

Having been transferred to St Mungo's after lunch, Lily was lying in her private room on the first floor of the hospital. She was feeling somewhat grouchy on her own, whishing that someone could be with her.

Annabelle was currently in the public sector, at the other end of the floor in the Dai Llewellyn Ward, one of the healers had told her, whereas Louis and Dominique were also in their own rooms; for 'publicity reasons,' Fleur had said. Apparently Rita Skeeter had found her way into the ward and had bombarded Louis with questions when he arrived a few hours before his sister and cousin. He was swiftly moved to a private room and the sleazy journalist chased out of the building.

The decor of the room wasn't very special. The wallpaper was a pale green colour and the linoleum floor matched it. There were two small tables, one next to the bed, and another on the opposite side of the room with a chair next to it. On the windowsill were eight different vials and bottles, each of them containing a different potion to heal or to disinfect or to prevent concussion (as it had been decided that somehow she had hit her head on a rock, leaving the bump and cut).

There was a knock at the door and the healer who had been assigned to Lily, Healer Thomas, came in. She was a petite witch with brown hair tied into a tight bun and glasses.

'How are you feeling?' she asked as she crossed to room, 'any better?'

'A little,' Lily croaked.

'Think you can sit up?' Lily had a particularly deep cut running across her abdomen which had prevented her from sitting up all day. It was still very sore.

'I don't think so.'

Healer Thomas then proceeded to examine her. Stopping every once in a while to note things down on the parchment she was holding. When that was done, she measured out small cups of three of the potions and handed them to Lily to drink one by one.

Each potion tasted foul, the first one, a gloopy liquid that was a sickly shade of pink, tasted worse than the other two put together. The healer, seeing Lily's distaste, then disappeared to find a glass of pumpkin juice, reappearing a couple of minutes later with a jug of the stuff. Having poured Lily a goblet-full she left.

The following day, Lily had lots of visitors. Her parents and brothers visited not long after she had eaten her breakfast and taken another five of her potions, then Ron, Hermione and Rose visited not long after. By late afternoon Bill, Fleur and Victoire had popped in and even Louis, with the help of one of the healers, dropped in for a few minutes.

Lily was interested to hear about what had been going on back at Hogwarts and her relatives didn't hold back on the information, over the course of the day, she found out everything that had happened since the task.

A full inquiry was being launched by the Ministry to track down the grindylow-like creatures which attacked the champions and hostages, and no one was allowed anywhere near the black lake. So far, the Durmstrang champion was in the lead, with forty points, Annabelle and Louis were both on zero, but no one was really taking the scores seriously, in fact most people scorned them (except for Aleksandar and his Slytherin girlfriend, James had said), even Viktor Krum's son was telling people that he didn't agree with the fact that the champion from Durmstrang had been awarded points.

When everyone was gone, Lily relaxed. Although she loved her family, having visitors all day in her state was not good for her energy levels. She reached for the copy of the _Daily Prophet _that her Uncle Ron had accidentally left behind, and turned it over to the front page. She was shocked to see her bloody, cut up face (presumably just after she had been pulled out of the lake) taking up a large portion of the page, accompanied by similar photographs of Dominique and Louis and much smaller ones of the other champions and hostages.

_TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS AND HOSTAGES ATTACKED DURING TREACHEROUS TASK!_

_Yesterday morning, the first task of the 2020 Triwizard Tournament took place, the format of which, was almost identical to that if the second task in 1995. Champions were given one hour to retrieve 'the things that otherwise will be left behind', two hostages, one who the champion would miss the most and one who their mentor (the champion from their school who participated in the last tournament) would miss the most._

_Unsurprisingly, Miss Lily Potter was selected as the hostage for the Hogwarts mentor, Harry Potter, Dominique Weasley for Fleur Weasley (née Delacour) and Stefan Krum for Viktor Krum._

_Roughly forty minutes into the task, the Durmstrang champion returned safely to the surface with his hostages. However, a few minutes after, Beauxbatons Champion, Annabelle St Martin appeared and seemed to be fighting black, demon-like water creatures for her life. She shouted a warning in French which caused a search party to be sent down for the others still in the water._

_Lily Potter and her cousin, Dominique Weasley were pulled out of the lake shortly after, badly injured and unconscious, followed by Louis Weasley who also had major injuries. Finally, Georgia Russe and Henry Williams, the final two hostages, were found relatively unharmed._

_Miss Potter, Miss St Martin, Mr Weasley and Miss Weasley were then transferred to St Mungo's for treatment. Sources say that Miss Potter and Miss Weasley are in critical conditions, and Mr Weasley and Miss St Martin are very unwell, yet stable. No official word from St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as of yet._

_The Ministry of Magic has stated that a full inquiry is under way to discover how these creatures came about in the lake. There is no official word from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or the Beauxbatons Academy as of yet._

Lily sighed. She knew that the media would get a hold of the information sooner or later, and blow it out of proportion, her parents had told her so, but she wished she could just be left alone. It was all fine for the rest of her family; they were used to it and never let it bother them. But Lily found it irksome; one article was more than enough.

Lily spent the next eight weeks in St Mungo's, missing the Yule Ball and the second task (which Louis had won, despite having only been let out of the hospital a week prior), at the end of January. The healers were baffled, every time the cuts were close the healing, they would open again and they would have to revert back to the eight different potions that they were trying to wean Lily off.

Eventually it was discovered that the creatures that had attacked the champions and hostages were Bulgarian Red-Toothed Grindylows, creatures that have instinct to attack any human that goes near them with poisoned, red teeth. After that piece of new came out, the Hogwarts hosts and Beauxbatons students became a lot colder towards the guests from Durmstrang. However there was one good thing about it- the healers finally knew how to treat the teenagers who had been attacked.

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**AN: It'd be lovely if some of you could review! -Bella**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry! I haven't updated in ages! I'm sooooo sorry!**

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After being discharged a few days after Dominique, Lily spent a two days at her parents' home in Godric's Hollow, before returning to school, via Floo into Professor McGonagall's fireplace on a Sunday evening at the beginning of February.

'Good evening Miss Potter,' Professor McGonagall said, 'I trust you are feeling better?'

'Yes, thank-you, Professor!' Lily chirped.

'Good, good. The house-elves have already taken your belongings up to your dormitory. Dinner is in an hour.'

Lily said goodbye and then stepped out of the office. She then began the long walk towards Gryffindor tower.

When Lily stepped into the common room, it was empty, save a few older students doing homework for the following day. She decided to go up to her dormitory to pack her school bag for Monday morning.

Having climbed the staircase, Lily arrived outside the dormitory that she hadn't entered for nearly two months. She opened the door and had a brief glance of the room around her before Rose and Annabelle had converged on her. Her roommates pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

'Ow! Ow! Ow!' screeched Lily, her stomach was still sore.

'Sorry,' the two girls apologised and stepped back, looking sheepish.

'So, what's been going on?' Lily asked as she walked over to her bed, trying to get back into the swing of using French. Since she had been away, she had spent almost all of the time speaking English.

'Not much really... You missed one of Uncle Harry's lectures, though. It was a couple of weeks ago,' Rose explained.

'Oh yeah, Dad mentioned that. He gave me a copy of Albus' notes, it's somewhere in my trunk along with all of the other work I managed to do. I swear my brother turned into an owl while I was in the hospital!'

The other two laughed.

'So what's happening with the Tournament? Mum and Dad haven't told anything except that Louis won the second task and you,' Lily gestured to Annabelle, 'came second. I think they told Al and James not to say anything, as well.'

'Not much, really. They have announced the date for the last task: the fifteenth of March.' Annabelle explained.

'That early?!'

'Yeah. I think they just want to get it over with now, given what happened with the first task.' Rose said.

'That would make sense. This whole thing is just a publicity stunt, Dad said. Apparently the British Ministry had some sort of outburst at the rest of Europe a few months after the War about how they didn't support them against Voldemort. But it would have been rather stupid if they did support the Ministry during the War because the whole place was crawling with Death Eaters.'

Annabelle and Rose nodded as they, too sat down upon their beds. Lily's schoolbag lay forgotten as they chatted and gossiped for the first time in months.


	10. Chapter 10

It was the morning of the third and final task. Lily opened her eyes and was immediately overcome with a bittersweet feeling: pleased that this wretched tournament was almost over, sad because that meant she had to go back to France and leave her family until the end of the year in June. She wanted to look forward to that but it would also mean looking forward to leaving Beauxbatons for good as both she and Rose had decided to move to Hogwarts in September.

Lily sat up and rubbed her eyes. She grabbed her wash-bag and towel and put her feet into her fluffy slippers, then walked across the room and into the bathroom.

Having showered, Lily wrapped herself in a towel and then proceeded to wash her face and brush her teeth. She then left the bathroom and went back into the dormitory where her cousin and friend were still sleeping. She dressed in her uniform, despite that fact that it was a Sunday (Madame Maxime's orders) and then hung up her towel to dry and folded her pyjamas on the bed, trying to ignore the growing feeling of apprehension in her stomach.

It was eight o'clock by now and Lily decided to go down to breakfast, leaving her roommates to sleep.

Surprisingly, there was very little activity in Gryffindor tower; there was no one on the girls' staircase and she could hear no talking coming from any or the dormitories as she passed them. Even in the common room there were only two seventh years quietly revising. Lily had thought that, given the imminent events, everyone would be buzzing... But, obviously not.

She headed out of the common room and into the corridor outside and began her descent of the castle.

One poltergeist and two ghosts. Those were the only beings that Lily passed in the corridors (though she almost ran into Filch). When she arrived in the Great Hall there were around ten people eating breakfast, Lily saw her brothers sitting together with Fred, eating their way through a pile of fried foods, she went to sit with them.

'Morning,' she said, helping herself to a hash brown at the top of the food mound.

'Hey!' James and Fred shouted indignantly, Lily rolled her eyes and took a bit of bacon, too. Albus laughed.

'Sleep well?' Albus enquired. Lily nodded again, her mouth full of meat and potato. 'Ready to see the final task?'

'Yeah, I suppose. I'll be glad when this whole thing is over. Whatever the Ministry says, it wasn't worth reinstating.' Lily said, she began to fill her plate with her own food.

'You would say that, though, given what happened in November.' Fred pointed out.

'So? What does it matter? I'm sure there are plenty of people who agree with me.'

'Lily has a point, Fred. It's not just this time, either. You know what happened when Dad, Aunt Fleur, Mister Krum competed.' Albus reasoned.

'And don't forget about that poor boy... Cedric I think his name was...' Lily trailed off.

'Cedric, Cedric who?' James looked confused.

'You know, the boy who won the tournament along with Dad, Cedric Diggory. They both decided to take the cup together and it transported them to a graveyard in Little Hangleton. Peter Pettigrew killed him on sight and tied Dad to a gravestone. It was the night Lord Voldemort returned.' Lily explained.

'Dad never told us about that,' Albus began, quietly.

'How do you know?' asked James.

'I read about it in the Library, they have decades of old Daily Prophets and I was reading them to find out a bit more about the last Tournament. Dad wasn't saying anything and Mum pretended not to hear when I asked about it.'

The four of them sat in silence for a while, before they were joined by Rose, Hugo and Louis.

'I wondered where you had got to!' said Rose, in French.

'Where else would she have been? Wales?' Louis jokingly retorted on Lily's behalf. The three of them laughed, while James, Fred, Albus and Hugo looked confused.

'Ha ha. So funny,' Rose pulled a face.

'Indeed you are Louis,' Lily spoke for the first time.

'Hey!' shouted James. 'English please!'

They all laughed.

'So when do you two leave? Tonight? Tomorrow?' asked Fred, gesturing to Lily and Rose.

'This evening. As soon as the Tournament ends, pretty much,' explained Rose.

'Which reminds me! I need to pack!' exclaimed Lily.

'So are you coming to Hogwarts next year?' Louis enquired, before taking a large gulp of pumpkin juice.

'Yeah. Dad fixed it with Professor Abercrombie and Madam Maxime.' Lily said matter-of-factly.

Just as she said that, a large group of Beauxbatons girls (the ones that had been sorted into Ravenclaw) came through the door to the hall and were now standing at the end of the gap between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables. When they saw Rose and Lily sitting with Louis they looked positively murderous.

Lily was sure that they all knew that her, Louis and Rose were cousins, but, in hindsight, maybe sitting with the champion from a different school, on the day of the final task, was a little too far in their eyes. Annabelle wouldn't have minded; Lily knew that, she had said it herself, but the others obviously did.

Rose, having also noticed the devil stares they were receiving, grabbed Lily by the arm and sped through the space between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables and out of the hall. Lily managed to shout a goodbye; however she wasn't sure if her brothers and cousins heard it as she was ten metres away from them when she said it.

Lily and Rose spent the rest of the morning packing for their return to France. As well as the usual tasks which are essential when packing, they also had a large number of library books to return. (Madam Prince looked especially relieved when they placed two piles of books, stacked ten high, on her desk, just before lunch time).

By the time all of the students and teachers were in the great hall to eat lunch; it was obvious that the champions had been extracted from the mass of people, apparently to go down to the Quidditch field where the final task would be held; and, after filling their stomachs to bursting, the students were ushered there too.

Lily and Rose walked among the large group of Beauxbatons girls, many of whom were still giving them the cold shoulder after the events of breakfast. Despite this, however, they weren't letting the two youngest out of sight.

When they reached the Quidditch pitch, all of the students climbed the stands. Lily could see James, Albus and her school age cousins (minus Louis) standing together, cheering, and her parents were with Bill, Fleur, Victoire and Dominique, standing on the ground in the area just outside of the maze that was roped off.

Once everyone had arrived the cheering and shouting and singing began to escalate until, eventually, the booming voice of Ludo Bagman sounded and the crowd fell silent.

'Welcome to the third and final task of the 2020 Triwizard Tournament!'

'Thank goodness,' whispered Rose to Lily.

'Our three champions will enter the maze one at a time, in order of placing! Mr Tomov will go on my first whistle as he has fifty points; then Mr Weasley with thirty-nine points and finally, on my third whistle, with thirty-five points, Miss St Martin. The first Champion to get to the cup is the winner! Champions, please take you places!'

There was a flurry of movement from the ground below as Alekandar, Louis and Annabelle moved to their separate entrances with their respective head teachers. Professor Abercrombie had his hand on Louis' shoulder, Madam Maxime stood stiffly by Annabelle, and Professor Antonov was looking around covertly while whispering things to Aleksandar.

'On your marks!' Mr Bagman announced before blowing a whistle. The Durmstrang champion disappeared into the maze.

After thirty seconds, the whistle blew again and Louis rushed into the maze.

After another thirty seconds, Annabelle entered.

There was silence for a few second before more cheers erupted.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm so so sorry for not updating in ages! Here is another chapter and I should be able to get another up as well! - Bella**

Lily tried. She really did. She tried her hardest to stay siting with the girls from her school, cheering on Annabelle (although Annabelle probably wouldn't be able to hear it). However, when the other girls began to slander the other champions, mainly Louis, she found she couldn't sit there any longer, Rose was quick to agree.

The cousins pushed their way along the row, ignoring any outraged cries from other students, and finally reached the steps, rushing down them as fast as they could.

When Lily and Rose got to the bottom of the stand, they strode across the grass and entered the roped off area where the mentors, families and head teachers were standing. Lily could see her father pacing around, looking anxious. Her mother was standing with Bill, who also had his arm around Fleur.

'Lily, Rose, thank Merlin you're here.' Ginny pulled her daughter and niece towards her and hugged them.

'Mum, what's the matter?' Lily asked cautiously. Ginny just shook her head.

'Your father's worried. Normally I'd just say he was paranoid, what with a life like he's had and an occupation he holds, but I can feel it too; something isn't right. I've been trying to catch your bothers' and cousins' eyes for a while now, but I think they're a little too caught up in the celebrations to notice...'

'Do you want us to fetch them, Auntie Ginny?' offered Rose.

'No, no, no, you stay here. I don't want you running off.' Ginny replied, seemingly distracted.

Lily and Rose exchanged a glance before going to sit down beside Victoire and Dominique who were chatting rapidly in French.

The task dragged on and on. Even after two hours no one had found the cup and everyone, excluding Ludo Bagman, was beginning to worry.

'No no! Nothing to worry about Potter!' He exclaimed when Harry voiced his concern. 'Surely, you of all people should understand that it isn't an easy task?!' Harry hated it when Ludo addressed him by his surname. For he now occupied an equal, if not higher, position at the ministry.

'I'm sure that you wouldn't say that, Mr Bagman, if you recalled the events of that evening. Cedric and I found the cup just over an hour into the task.'

'Your career has made you paranoid, Potter. Just relax, hey? Enjoy the festivities.'

Harry bit his tongue to stop him from replying. He was sure that Ginny would scold him if he used that sort of language.

Lily could see that her father was growing more anxious by the minute. He kept shooting furtive glances at Professor Antonov, who was scowling at no one in particular, and had one hand inside his jacket; no doubt wrapped around his wand.

Suddenly, blue sparks shot into the sky, catching the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Excited chatter filled the the stands and Ludo looked positively elated.

'Well! It looks like we have a winner!' The head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports told the crowd with his wand held to his throat. He then walked over to the three Head Teachers and had a whispered conversation before the professors took out their wands and began to wave them in complicated patterns in front of the forty foot high hedge.

The maze then began to shrink and shrink, the branches and leaves disappearing into the ground. A head, that of Aleksandar Tomov then became visible. He was holding the cup, looking ecstatic, and standing next to an empty plinth, where the cup must have been placed. The students of Durmstrang exploded in a fresh round of cheers and everyone else clapped politely. Until the hedge finally went back into the ground, that is.

Lying about one hundred meters away were Lois and Annabelle. They weren't moving. Fleur, as she had done in the first task, was the first to react. She ran over to her son and mentee, closely followed by Bill, Victoire, Dominique and Harry. Ludo Bagman stood there like a fish out of water while all of the teachers, save Antonov, tried to calm the outraged students who were calling out for a do-over after that 'obvious and discussing bit of cheating,' as Lil could hear her brother, James, so eloquently putting it from the top of the farthest stand.

There were a series of pops, as if a group of people had just apparated, and, sure enough, they had. About twenty men dressed in black robes appeared out of nowhere around the roped off area. However, before anyone could react, even Harry, everything went dark and Lily could feel someone pulling her roughly to her feet and away from Rose, who had had grabbed that hand of when the men first appeared.

Coughs and shouts could be heard in the stands above and Lily could just make out her father's voice; he was calling her name. Meanwhile, her captor was holding her with one arm tightly around her neck, no doubt with his wand pointed at her heart. As hard as she tried to escape, she gave up after a few seconds, realising that she was likely to snap her own neck before she would wriggle free.

As it grew light again, Lily realised that she wasn't the only one in her position. A few feet to her left was Rose, then Albus, then James, then Hugo; the latter three had probably come down from the stands in the commotion before the darkness and were dragged into this situation.

Her father had rushed forwards and he had his wand out, he pointed at each of the Death Eaters holding his children, niece and nephew in turn, keeping a second eye on the remaining fifteen or so who were standing around, looking menacing.

Professor McGonagall then took the initiative to begin evacuating students. Surprisingly, the Death Eaters did nothing. That meant that they already had what they wanted.

'So, Potter. Not so big now, are we?' Sneered the one restraining Lily, who was now struggling with all her might.

'What do you want?!' Demanded Harry.

'What do we want? We want everything back the way it was six months ago. With these two,' he gestured to Lily and Rose, 'back in France.'

It seemed such a silly thing to be holding five teenagers hostage over.

'Why?' Continued Harry.

'For reasons we can't tell you about, Potter!' Another reprimanded.

'But, if you aren't willing to cooperate, then the two girls are better off dead. They know too much, they've seen too much.' The man holding Lily spoke again, but as he did so, he pulled out a long silver dagger and held it to her throat. Lily gulped and looked pleadingly at her father, tears forming in her eyes. Father and daughter held eye contact for a moment before there was an almighty yell.

'STUPIFY!' Ron yelled. The force of his spell managed to knock out two Death Eaters, the ones holding Rose and Lily. The two girls fell to the ground, gasping. However they were wrong when they thought it was over.

Just as the adults began to duel, one Death Eater turned his wand on Lily.

'Crucio!' He hissed. Lily felt pain beyond anything the had ever imagined. It was much much worse that she remembered feeling as an infant when she was first taken from her parents. She screamed and screamed; then it stopped.

Lily pushed herself into a sitting position and noticed that all of the adults had stopped duelling and were now either pointing their wands towards to one Death Eater who had tortured Lily, in the case of the aurors, or at Lily herself, in the case of the five remaining Death Eaters (it seemed that a large number of them had disapparated during the commotion as the protective enchantments had not been fixed at the time. But now the spells were back in place if the stumbling Death Eater who had just attempted to apparate away was anything to go by).

'You have business with me, not my family! Leave them!' Harry told the men, wand still raised. Ginny was now standing beside her husband in the same stance as him.

The Death Eaters said nothing in return, merely smirked. One of them turned their wand on Lily again but Harry was quicker, managing to silence him before he could utter the curse. However it wasn't the same spell as had been used earlier, purple light hit Lily squarely in the chest. She gasped in surprise before crumpling to the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

When Lily opened her eyes again she was lying in a bed. Not the soft, comfortable beds that were in every dormitory at Hogwarts, even in the hospital wing; but the harder ones dressed in blue sheets that she had become so accustomed to in her years at Beauxbatons.

The walls were pale blue, and the floor was white and tiled the curtains were drawn across all of the windows. Though she had never been in there before, Lily assumed that she was in the infirmary of her school, back in France.

Had everything been one long, dream?

'Lily! Thank goodness you are awake! Your mother was one the verge of having a nervous breakdown!'

Well that answered her question.

Fleur rushed over to her. Lily tried to sit up but then was aware of a sharp stabbing pain across her chest. She flinched than lay down, abandoning all attempts to move. Her aunt kissed her on the cheek.

'What happened?' Lily asked. Fleur opened her mouth to answer but Lily cut in, 'Afterwards, I mean.'

Fleur sighed and sat down in a chair beside Lily's bed. She explained how, after she was struck down (with an unknown curse, although it seemed to be a combination of the Killing Curse and Sectumsempra, which Hermione had been attacked with, albeit in another form with no external effects, twenty-five years previously) the whole of the Auror Department arrived; they managed to round up the Death Eaters as they had the element of surprise. However, this wasn't without casualties; Albus had been tortured, and James had been struck with the same curse as Lily, however the caster had been able to say the incantation, leading to far more damage. James was currently residing in St Mungo's, though the healers were sure that he would make a full recovery with time.

The attack and the last task of the tournament had happened three days ago. Although there had been some debate over what was to happen to Lily, whether she would stay in England or return to France, it had been agreed that she would return with her school-mates (though she was still unconscious at the time) and remain in the infirmary until she recovered.

Both Harry and Ginny decided that a family member, aside from Rose, should go to France too, however neither one of them were able to. Harry, as the head of the Auror Department, had a lot of work to do after recent events and Ginny was being worked to the grindstone by the Daily Prophet. Fleur then volunteered to go as she knew Beauxbatons well, having spent her schooldays there, and spoke fluent French; no one disagreed with her.

'What about Louis and Annabelle?' Asked Lily.

'They're fine. They were just stunned. Apparently everything was planned with the Durmstrang headmaster. The Death Eaters, having heard that you were alive, contacted Antonov, and they offered to help his champion win if he helped get them to you and Rose. They planned what happened in the lake as well as the attack a few days ago. Obviously Aleksandar has been stripped of his prize.'

Lily nodded.

'Well. I need to contact your mother to tell her that your awake. I'll be back later.' Fleur smiled and stood up. She left the infirmary. Lily, despite the fact that she had been sleeping for nearly three days, felt extremely tired. She turned over and closed her eyes, drifting off shortly after.

When Lily woke up, however-many hours later, the curtains were open and light was streaming in through the windows. The sun was high in the sky, so Lily judged the time to be around twelve o'clock.

The cut crossing her front, caused by the Death Eater, though still sore, was nowhere near as painful as it had been; whether due to the passing of time or the administration of various potions while she had been sleeping was unknown; however Lily didn't mind either way, as she was now able to sit up in bed.

The doors to the infirmary then swung open to admit a tall, thin, severe looking woman with pursed lips, whom Lily had only seen walking the corridors of the school on a handful of occasions over the years. She was wearing a long pale green dress with a white, cotton apron on top of it and had her hair in a bun. She held the handle of her wand in her left hand, with the tip of it in her right.

Madam Consul greeted Lily stiffly, then proceeded to cast a diagnostic spell, then filled seven small goblets, each with a separate potion, and gave them to Lily to drink one at a time. Afterwards she summoned one of the house elves to bring Lily some lunch (it was now around a quarter to one) and left her to eat.

Lily ate her food deep in thought. She missed the substantial food of Hogwarts now that she was eating a small meal of some bread with pâté. She also missed England in general, especially her family.

It soon became obvious that the matron did not allow student visitors into the infirmary. On three separate occasions Fleur tried to bring Rose in to see Lily and each time both of them were reprimanded, with only Fleur let through the doors. Due to this, Lily soon became bored. It wasn't that she didn't like Fleur's company, it's just that she wished that she could have more than that of her aunt and a sour old healer.

After another week and a half, Lily was finally released from the infirmary. She had been filled to the brim with so many medicines that she had begun to really resent the place.

She left at lunchtime on a Monday. Lily made her way up to the dormitories so she could pack her school bag for the rest of the day.

Lily looked around the room that she once called home. The forty-eight beds were all made and there wasn't a book or an item of clothing out of place. There once was a time that the room's tidiness was a comfort to her. But a lot had changed since the last time she stood in there.

She began to walk over to her bed until she realised that she was heading in the wrong direction. Since her last name had changed, it would no longer be next to Rose's on the side of the room with the windows. Lily turned and walked along the opposite row until she found her trunk in front of one of the other beds. Sighing, she opened it and sorted her things for the afternoon.

Once her bag was packed, she hoisted it over her shoulder and opened her wardrobe to look in the mirror. Her reflection was as it had always been, except for a long, white scar that ran across her neck; courtesy of those lovely Death Eaters (Edward Jugson, more specifically, as Fleur had told her) and that knife. It didn't hurt much, though. Lily hadn't even noticed it really, not until her aunt had pointed it out, one afternoon when they were sitting together in the infirmary.

Lily ran her finger along the white line, then closed the wardrobe door and started along the gangway and out of the dormitory. She had Charms now.

Just as Lily left the dormitory a bell tolled, signifying the end of lunch and the beginning of the two minute period for everyone to go to their next lesson. She could hear the chatter of people leaving the dining room and could see a group of students leaving the library, some ninety metres away. Lily sped up and rushed down a staircase and through the door into the Spells department.

She passed the Magical Theory classrooms, then the Transfuguration classroom, and finally arrived at the larger of the two Charms classrooms where a handful of her classmates were waiting inside. There wasn't one girl that didn't stare at her. Lily felt this to be quite disconcerting and she took a seat at the back of the classroom, trying to ignore the whispers.

There were three classes in Lily's year, split alphabetically: students with surnames beginning with letters A to H, I to P and Q to Z. Rose and Lily had always been in the same class, but now they were not, as they no longer shared their last name. Lily wished that Rose was with her. They hadn't even seen each other since the Final Task.

After the final few girls had entered and taken their seats, the second bell sounded and the teacher, Madame Douvrin, swept in and began the lesson without a second thought. The lack of a welcome-back speech allowed Lily to focus on her work.

Following Charms was a Theory of Magic lesson, and to end the day, French Muggle History.

After dinner, Lily was exhausted and she hadn't been able to speak to Rose, either, as her cousin had been called to the Headmistress' office shortly before mealtime, as one of the other girls in her year had told her. This had put Lily in a rather foul mood as she found herself writing a letter to her parents in the library.

'Dear Mum and Dad,

I got out of the hospital wing today. I'm not sure if Aunt Fleur has already told you or not as I haven't seen her. I haven't been able to speak to Rose since before the attack and we're in separate classes now and Madam Consul (the matron) doesn't allow student visitors in the hospital wing.

I'm absolutely exhausted now, although its only seven o'clock so I'm not going to write much more than this little update.

Love Lily

Ps. Would it be alright if I came home over the Easter Holidays?'

Lily read back her letter, then scrunched it up and threw it away. She didn't like it. She then tried again with the same results, so resolved to do her homework instead and write the letter tomorrow.

Half a Magical Theory essay and six chapters on Military Runes later it was ten o'clock. Lily hadn't meant to overrun (she was supposed to be in the dormitory by half past nine) but she needed to get her work done and her failed attempts at writing to her family had taken time. Besides, she wouldn't get into trouble, not after everything that had happened.

Lily got back to the dormitory easily. Neither one of the house-mistresses were there and the library was only a minutes walk away. Ignoring the stares from the other girls, Lily changed into her pyjamas then marched into the bathroom.

It had taken the time from when she entered the dormitory to when she was standing in front of the sink in the bathroom to realise that she still hadn't seen Rose. Lily's cousin hadn't been by her bed, or anywhere else in the room for that matter, nor in the bathroom, though she may have been taking a shower or in the toilet.

Lily shrugged then shook her shoulders and rolled her neck, allowing it to click loudly, causing the girl standing in front of another sink a couple of metres away, named Christine, to shudder and look over. Lily apologised and turned back to the mirror, only to notice after a few seconds that Christine was still looking at her with wide eyes.

'Yes?' Lily enquired politely. Christine looked surprised then shook her head and turned away. Just as Lily was wondering what that odd interaction had been about, she saw Christine, obviously subconsciously, run her fingers across the front of her own neck. Lily then understood. She'd noticed the scar left by the knife.

It was very noticeable, Lily thought. In fact, so was the other one. Though most of it was covered by her brown vest top she was wearing, the scar began at her left collar bone and went across to her right hip, leaving a good fifteen centimetres of it exposed at the top; and it wasn't little by any means, the part visible was half an inch wide at the narrowest.

Lily then proceeded to wash her face and brush her teeth. Afterwards she went to the loo and left the bathroom.

Once back by her bed, Lily sat down on it. She checked her clock on the bedside table, it was twenty past ten. Looking along the row she noticed that Rose's area was untouched: the bedclothes unwrinkled, the wardrobe tightly shut, the trunk unopened. Obviously Rose wasn't back, Lily began to worry. She knew that Rose had been summoned to the headmistress' office earlier that evening but surely she couldn't still be there?

There were still ten minutes until the housemistress would come into the large dormitory and turn out the lamps, so Lily opened her trunk and took out some of her English schoolbooks and the corresponding French ones, having decided to make a list of the differences between the two separate courses to prepare for going to Hogwarts next year.

Lily had completed her list for Charms and was now nearly finished with Transfiguration when she looked back at the time, it was a quarter to eleven and the lamps were still lit. Lily furrowed her brow and turned to the girl on the next bed across from her: Celine.

'Is there something I have missed? Why hasn't Mademoiselle Delacour come in yet?'

'No idea,' she shrugged and turned back to the letter she was writing.

'Has anything else been going on, since the delegation got back?' Lily tried to make conversation with the girl, they had previously been quite good friends but after Lily and Rose, then Lydie and Reine, had been selected to go to Hogwarts, she had turned sour and resented Lily for it.

'Not really. Everyone seemed surprised that you all came back so early, though.' She said this with a cool indifference, however that was obviously false as a couple of seconds later, curiosity got the better of her. 'Why was that?'

'A lot of things, I suppose. At the time the British Ministry wasn't very popular after what happened in the first task and Durmstrang was being suspected of cheating.'

'What happened in the first task?' Celine enquired, trying to sound uninterested but failing.

Lily gulped then explained what happened, taking care not to mention her involvement. If Celine already knew that she was a hostage then, fine. If she didn't, Lily didn't want to be the one to tell her.

'How long did you say they were in the hospital for?' It seemed that Celine did not know.

'Eight weeks, at most. It depended on the person, I think. Annabelle was let out in time for the second task, however.' Lily said stiffly, remembering the long, boring days she spent in the English wizarding hospital.

The sound of the door to the dormitory opening brought all of the girls out of their conversations. Rose rushed over the threshold, to her bed without looking at anyone, while Mademoiselle Delacour stood just inside of the room.

'Everyone in bed! Quick quick!' The housemistress-turned-aunt-in-law barked at the room as she waved her wand to close the curtains. Her normally kind voice was gone.

Once everyone was in bed (except for Rose who had gone into the bathroom to wash) she extinguished the lamps and closed the door of the dormitory, then went to sit down in a chair beside it, as either one of the housemistresses always did for twenty minutes to prevent any chatter resuming.

Lily lay awake. She was determined to speak to Rose before tomorrow morning.

Eventually all Lily could hear was slow, heavy breathing. She was now counting down to when Mademoiselle Delacour would leave the dormitory. Rose hadn't returned from the bathroom yet, even after fifteen minutes, so Lily assumed that she was waiting for her.

Lily turned over away from the bathroom end of the room to see that the housemistress was looking at her. Before Lily could close her eyes and pretend to be asleep, Gabrielle almost imperceptibly jerked her head towards the bathroom. Lily sat up and sent her a questioning look. Gabrielle returned one that clearly said 'Go!'

Lily got out of bed and walked up to the bathroom, trying not to wake any of the others, and pushed open the door.

As she had suspected, Rose was waiting for her. She was standing just inside the bathroom in her pyjamas, the same ones as Lily was wearing, looking anxious. When she saw Lily come in she pulled her into a hug.

'Oh I'm so glad your out of there!' She said with a grin on her face. She was also speaking in English, which Lily noted and played along with. This was obviously an important conversation that shouldn't be overheard by any of the others; if they heard English at this time of night they would likely ignore it and not bother to translate.

'Me too, I was staring to get bored with only Madam Consul and Aunt Fleur for company,' Lily explained. Rose giggled quietly. 'Where were you today? I was let out at the end of lunchtime so I couldn't see you, but at dinner one of the others said you were speaking to Madam Maxime.' The tone of the conversation changed instantly.

Rose bit her lip.

'I was.'

Silence

'Aaaand..?'

'It wasn't Madam Maxime. They were just using her office. People from the English Ministry came. They were asking me questions about... Everything.'

'Why? Why now? I mean I know after everything that happened they'd want to hear what we had to say about what went on at the Final Task but why... Everything?'

Rose sighed.

'It's about what the Death Eaters said. About us knowing too much. The people from the Ministry seem to think that we're hiding something about what happened. They kept asking me about what I remember about the night I was taken, about what happened shortly afterwards, but I honestly can't remember anything bad happening. It's too long ago to remember.'

'If you can't remember, you can't remember. There's nothing more to it,' Lily said blatantly.

'Thats what I thought and that's what I tried to tell them. But they seem to think that reason I'm not talking is because I'm scared of repercussions. Of course I am,' she added when Lily began to question, 'but that isn't why I won't, can't, say anything.'

Lily stood there for a moment, taking everything in.

'Do you parents know?' She asked after a while.

'I don't know. I suppose they must, what with Mum in her position at the Ministry.' Rose said, shrugging her shoulders. 'You know they're going to try to talk to you about it next. It might even be as soon as tomorrow.'

'Yeah. Well. I kind of expected that.' Lily rubbed her eyes, then sat down on a bench which was against the wall. Rose did likewise. 'At least I have something to tell them. Maybe that'll get them just to drop it.'

'Oh yeah. You do, don't you?'

Lily nodded.

'But they should already know that. It's what I told Mrs Macmillan when we went with my dad and your mum.'

'It's still something.'

Then, both girls yawned and they took that as their cue to go to bed. They left the bathroom they made their way to their beds. When Gabrielle saw them, she smiled and left the dormitory.


End file.
